The Professor's Notes
by Quentix Starwing
Summary: An introspective look at Professor Kokonoe's mental state throughout Blazblue, from the view of my OC and her creation, Kageo-kaka. Separate from the "Perspective of a Modified Kaka" story, this tale is meant to show her interaction with one of her creations, the only one who questions her actively. Chapter VI is up.
1. Chapter: Prologue

A/N: A third Blazblue fanfiction started all in the span of a few months? Certainly things have been slow, nothing that I think can come from simple words. But this one here will probably being my most ambitious of its kind. A strange but impacting look at Professor Kokonoe in all of her glory, an attempt to capture her eccentric nature and what's more...a mental delving into her mind. Through the eyes of Kageo-kaka, one of her latest creations (in a manner, Chronologically speaking) and one who autonomously voices his free thoughts to her. Unlike the respectful and considerate Tager who implicitly trusts Kokonoe or the silent and enigmatic Lambda-11, Kageo harbors a crush and wants to see the best of the Professor, choosing to believe in her good nature; or rather what little she has. In a world that carries sins, she is not innocent herself and he knows it as well as she does. Professor Kokonoe doesn't apologize for who she is or what she becomes in order to reach her goal, therein lies the conflicting focus. So stay with me, as this venture from one little Kaka's eyes do rest with the Professor Kokonoe on her string of choices. What may happen? Only time will be the teller as this story unfolds. Let's begin.

(End A/N)

–

Prologue: Merely a Kaka, onlooking eyes

Where to begin from a simple observation? This is exactly what someone who over-analyzes the small things might consider. At least that's what a lot of people would have you believe. But in the case of analyzing those like the most brilliant scientist at Sector Seven, you can only try to peel back the layers as best one can. There's a near impossible array of defenses one has to past to get close enough to get even a hint of truth from her presence.

Either being an aid or assistant to Professor Kokonoe would get you close enough, though spending so much time getting coffee or pushing papers for her will keep you too far to hear a peep of importance. But being a special case like myself, it gives one the opportunity to hear her thoughts and listen to rants or complaints from her as she spends all day focused on computer work. Rarely leaving the lab and constantly exploring the many theoretical points of her studies, when not focused on revenge. It might bring a question to mind as to our purpose in life or what has brings us use. The answers aren't that hard to grasp, each one of us may have been designed for something and then given a task or two.

Each one of her creations were made to either enforced an aspect of her studies or were focused on the tasks given them. For TR-0009, otherwise known as 'The Red Devil of Sector Seven', Iron Tager was built to carry out the heavy duty missions or retrieving articles of importance or anything the Professor sees in her designs. No less than her most ambitious conception known as Lambda-11, empowered by a top secret device she's murmured about called the "IDEA Engine", certainly this young woman is the strongest of us all theoretically speaking. Where does this leave me? That's the general question most ask, though its pretty simple: being a Kaka modified from birth, designed to be a multi-use weapon capable of carrying out missions under any scenario. With a variable system known as the Artifice Core System, it makes the job given by the Professor extra easy.

Though designed as a weapon, espionage and information gathering missions are my specialty. It comes with the territory of being a relatively ignored and unnoticed breed, most folks don't care to check if a Kaka has half a wit in their head. Most people assume that its the age old sleep'n'eat mentality. That kind of thinking let's almost everyone underestimate whose listening and it makes this job worlds easier. Then again, not everyone is that stupid, but even if they aren't, the bio-mechanical enhancements make discerning coded language or information in a computer easy to take and store. That's just to give an idea about what it is that my uses are.

Still whenever not on mission, I'm either free to do as I wish or the more likely choice: act as an in lab assistant. It's easier to trust what you've created with secrets above even the most trusted lab assistants. At least that's the feeling I get from the Professor, she doesn't talk much about it really, more just tells me grab the next box and move it. There are only guesses in this line of work, that's learned from the espionage detail or from just listening to the verbal games played by the Professor. It's easier to tell she does this, since its easy to smell a change in a person if they lie, pheromones and body language play a huge role in that, so its easier to use a half-truth or deflect it all together.

Then again that was only when she felt like it, if she was willing to explain anything at all. Such as it is, things are never dull around here in the lab. Whenever not on mission, it's trying to clean the lab under her instruction. There was always a box to move or information to type into a holo computer, nothing but the usual data entry kind of work. Still it was oddly amusing to find an enhanced Kaka to be used for mundane chores. Then again it was vintage Professor Kokonoe, whatever she decided you'd be doing, was exactly what would be done.

"Kageo! Get it together, get me coffee and my silvervine pops, now." Kokonoe's annoyed voice broke the Kaka from his thoughts.

"Right away, Professor!" Kageo said this while he blushed and then he left quickly down the hall.

He had been thinking a little too hard and forgot to get the Professor what he'd promised to less than a minute ago. Within less than 2 minutes, he returned with her silvervine pops and had her coffee supported on a small dish, balanced on his tail. The coffee was viennese cinnamon, lightly sugared, as he knew that she liked it in such a mood as this one. He could tell that she was just slightly annoyed, which was nothing new at all. As he saw her take the coffee and the lollipops without so much as a thanks, he gave off a light smile and went back to work.

Kokonoe was still busy at work, figuring out some variables in what she read off of the boot up test for Lambda-11. Still it was eluding her what caused the anomaly, there was little in way of words to describe her frustration. They were just the oddest little variables keeping her back and leaving her with no ways to adjust on account of the oddities she read. Still wasn't going to stop her from making use of Lambda in the field. She wasted no time once she found a hole in the variable, the thing that was causing her the errors.

"Ah ha! There you are, you little bugger, time to get you the hell out of my way." she'd say this while inputting the correct data.

She was wasting no time inputting the new data, and while she did so, she made sure to call Kageo again to put him to work. He had been off mission for a few days, and she bet that he had been lax in his training. It was time to put him back into action and to give Lambda a bit of exercise. Since it was just going to be a low range test, she'd make sure that Lambda used no more than 40% of her strength for it.

"Get your spear, Kageo, you're going to help me test Lambda's capacity for combat." even though she said it rather deviously, it hadn't concerned him too much.

"Roger, Professor." the kaka responded without a question to the word.

Even if she was acting as if she didn't know that he trained twice a day normally, that had not changed today. It just meant that he was already warmed up and it would let him find his groove quicker. With that same thing in mind he knew that he would need all of his wits to deal with Lambda-11, she was after all the latest of the Professor's projects. Once Kageo grabbed his spear, he'd come back to training room one and was practicing by spinning the spear he wielded carefully. The kaka was concerned only with his performance, he'd have to be at peak focus even though it was a basic test.

It was no less than 10 minutes later that Lambda was warped into the room, her visor clear momentarily as she finished materializing. The Kaka couldn't help but feel a little bit of intimidation as he looked on the slightly taller blond's menacing blades. It was something that the two were comparable on: having blades at their disposal. Even though his blades were not so numerous...he was definitely outgunned here or perhaps out knifed. As soon as the red orb lit up and focused on him, his body tensed and the grip on his spear's shaft with a nervous grip.

"Alright, Kageo. Engage Lambda as she will, but remember this is a spar so she won't hurt you too badly." Kokonoe said this with a grin as she then gave Lambda the go ahead. "Simple orders, Battle Test Lambda, output 40%."

"Battle Test, Combat output 40%, acknowledged. Subject is Kageo-kaka." Lambda-11 spoke her orders and the target of her attack.

With no less than a split second in between the acknowledgment of the parameters and the start, Lambda was first to strike with a simple wave of her right hand, three spatial blades materialized from glyph patterns along the air, just before firing at Kageo. With each blade on their path, the modified kaka was quick to respond and managed to knock the blades away from him with a rapid spin of his spear, favoring the shaft of the weapon for defense. Even though he succeeded, he ended up forced into a backwards step, while Lambda moved in on him. With her left arm thrusting forward, along with her speed had brought her wrist sword closest to the center of his chest. Fortunately, he'd blocked it with his left claw, that which he extended the moment he sensed her approach to him. With the muscles in his left arm flexing, he managed to shove her back and thrust the diamond-shaped head of his spear at Lambda's center.

The attempt to push her back had not worked, since she parried the attack with her right wrist sword, before again thrusting towards Kageo's chest. This time, the Kaka used his right foot claw to counter her sword aimed for him. He'd used the leverage that his foot hand in order to push off into a quick backflip to put some distance between them. As he pushed back from Lambda, she thrust her left bladed leg towards his chest just as he was landing. Something that Kageo saw while in the process of landing, that he managed to narrowly avoid by dropping into a side split.

While Kokonoe watched the battle unfolding so far, it was surprising to see that Kageo didn't awaken the A.C.S. From the beginning and he was working with his own merit. His natural levels were decent for a Kaka of his age, but Kokonoe knew it wasn't going to be enough to face down Lambda. Gritting her teeth in her annoyance and impatience welling up, she called her agent out on his attempt to 'grow' as he would always tell her. While it was an admirable attempt at growth, but this was a TEST not training for him. She grumbled and shouted over the communication line at him to get busy.

"Hey, Kageo! Stop screwing around and release the Core System now! Train later, give me some test data, damn it!" overall, though annoyed, the feline scientist had enjoyed his series of dodging, as it was what she expected of her espionage agent.

But there was a time and place to see how good he was at evasion, and as she indicated this was hardly the time for it. As Kageo flinched visibly on the holo-screen, she grinned as it was a sign that he heard her loud and clear. As she waited for him to get started, she watched with a discerning eye: it was something that Kageo avoided at most turns. It was not something that caused him pain, so she wasn't sure why he did this unless it was the typical masculine focus: looking for a challenge. She'd probe into that later and see what his reason was.

"Set with the waning moon, Kagennotsuki!" Kageo hopped into action and made use of the faster version of the mechanical spear's activation phrase.

Immediately the kaka began to bleed with a cerulean blue aura, something that burned around the edge of his body and the spear with a visible illumination. Certainly this was Kageo at one of his finest times, it wasn't a doubt as to whether he was more powerful, but now it would be a matter of how Lambda grew accustomed to his improvements and power output increasing. As Lambda's response was briefly to pause while assessed him, the moment was over quite quickly. With a wave of her hand she unleashed another spatial blade which launched from its glyph and straight towards his upper left shoulder. The kaka responded by raising his claw and batting the blade away from him with relative ease.

"Enemy output has increased, within parameters, proceeding with attack." Lambda's response had been swift, as was her next attack.

As she moved in for a close range attack, her left wrist sword thrust at his chest, something that he evaded by pulling back to her left. Switching to the attack, Kageo had slashed his right claw, though Lambda easily parried him using her wrist sword, before using her right knee to hit him in the stomach. The blow staggered Kageo somewhat and forced him to stumble backwards, something that Lambda used to attack again. Her right left now extending from the knee attack she'd used before, now sent her armored, blade-like leg towards his stomach/chest region. Kageo's eyes flashed blue as he met her kick with his antler-like spear head.

He'd managed the quick block by holding the spear by its neck and as the two pressed into the attack, the sparks of both heat and energy began to spatter around them. Kageo struggled to try and overpower her, which he found was not working as well as he hoped. Using something of his most serious fighting capabilities, Kageo sent a surge of caeroule energy from the tip of his spear. Lambda was pushed off by visually unique energy source, the potent shock had forced the pair to part. Rushing towards her for once, Kageo thrust the spear head towards Lambda's waist.

Though he found a blade wing halted him with ease; and as he jumped to the right and thrust the spear again he was halted by a pair of the same petal blades that danced in the air under Lambda's control. Kageo's speed picked up throughout the spar/test battle, still he wasn't having much luck hitting her. The pair continued to clash over the next 10 minutes, which had the result of Kageo being slashed up throughout the following clashes. Lambda met each and every one of his attacks, taking no more than one or two hits from his agile attacks. The damage had been within her tolerances and she persisted, this forcing Kageo on the defensive once again.

"Alright, that's enough! Lambda stand down, test battle over. Good job out there, both of you." Professor Kokonoe had let off a small laugh, it was as she'd hoped.

Kageo was swift and yet he'd been outpowered by Lambda, he was using about the same output as Lambda and he couldn't keep pace. The whole point for the test was to be sure that Lambda could handle a swift opponent with some fast moves. It wasn't as fast as Terumi, but it was a good means of testing something through an enhanced Kaka. This was test one and it had been a success, she knew Kageo would recover from the damage taken, after all she had created him. As Kokonoe ordered Lambda to return to the Lab and had called Kageo in as well.

"On the table, Kageo. It's time to extract the battle data, I'll need all the information to make proper adjustments." the matter-of-fact statement made the Kaka cringe physically.

"Roger, Professor." Kageo said without hesitation, though he did not want to get this done, the procedure was always so troublesome.

Kokonoe looked at the kaka and had to shake her head a little bit, as the ever obvious sign of his fear of the needles didn't stop his dedication. It was something that she didn't frankly understand about the Kaka. She had overseen his development and watched him grow up quickly, training and taking on missions. For the reason that very reason of seeing him born, she also saved him from becoming fodder for Sector Seven's battle division. She knew of his uses and had been seeing them to their fullest, and yet he was still so devoted that it led to her not fully understanding it.

Not that it mattered really, he was willing to do his job and that was all that really mattered. In the end she'd be taking down Terumi and that was her end game, as it didn't matter about anything in the crossfire of it. Her revenge meant enough that whatever might happen would have been worth the effort, all she needed to count on were her subordinates doing as she told them. Such as it was, little mattered to the Professor as she planned to destroy the man who had taken everything in her life that was good. Her family was destroyed, her parents gone in one form or another, happiness was gone amd just a bitter woman remained.

This was only the beginning of trying to understand the Professor, we as her creations could see the wisps of a good person hidden beneath all of that pain. It was hard to speak for Lambda, but Tager knew and that had been one thing that bound myself and the Red Devil. Being a Kaka gave a small bit of insight towards understanding hidden emotions and the ability to ignore them so easily. Yet this is what was given a purpose, a chance to see through the layers of the Professor's shell and her defenses. Her would-be cold and guarded heart still beat, no matter how much she denied it herself and just maybe it was waiting to beat with purpose.

(End Chapter)

Here we have the first of this mental introspection of Professor Kokonoe's psyche, here this adventure has found a platform at which to boost off of. It is but the beginning of this journey and one definitely worth while, as the hypothetical has never been quite clear. Any fans of Blazblue that have followed the game to Chronophantasma have seen how far she is willing to go. What would she do is not in question, but what this legacy of the Six Heroes does with her emotions is just conjecture. It's what inspired this little tale that has been started.

Looking forward to writing the first chapter, here we go with yet another marvelous tale brought to life!

Until the next chapter I bid you adieu.

-Quentix


	2. Chapter: Calculating a means to an end

A/N: We have the actual first chapter on the horizon, here is the first look at Professor Kokonoe's mind as she focuses on her Project with Lambda, the secret weapon to destroy Yuuki Terumi. What does rushing the plan along to ensure that it's ready in time do? Let's find out, as a certain Kaka in the lab goes about doing his best to see that the Professor finds all she needs as long as he can deliver. Even though Kokonoe won't ever stop doing what needs to be done to meet her goals, it doesn't mean that her heart doesn't question those issues. Let's find out what may go through her mind.

(End A/N)

–

Chapter I: Calculating a means to an end

There was a saying that is popular to use among certain people from long ago, something along the lines of, 'the ends justify the means'. It has always been something that has applied to the Professor in her pursuits of things, very few things kept her from a goal that she set herself towards. If anything it was only something of a large physical threat that might hold her back or delay the plan. There was no failure for her, just the next phase of this large unfolding plan with multiple avenues. Though it was not to say that she didn't get upset, oh quite the contrary, there were moments where her fury was the very bane of a foolish attendant who'd be put to endless grunt work or crap assignments for a foolish Kaka onlooking for witnessing it.

By all means, despite whatever might be humorous or possibly 'minor' was but a show of the true fault at hand. No matter how a plan was altered, it would simply undergo redrafts and be shoved back out in a new form. The one goal was exactly what anyone could expect, a successful execution of well laid plans that had been drastically altered to fit a timetable. This was a trademark of the Professor when it came to getting things done. She simply made the equations fit her desires. It didn't matter to her how the means came about, she makes use of everything at her disposal to ensure things go her way.

The most important thing right now had been ensuring that Lambda-11 was synced at optimal conditions, to this end the testing had been performed under a microscope's view. Kokonoe was overlooking every aspect, watching the training tests between Lambda and Kageo with earnest hope that she showed improvement. The last battle made her feel that Lambda might well overwhelm Terumi. The fact that Kageo was a close combat specialist and yet he'd been almost helpless against Lambda after their fourth battle. Kokonoe was reading through the combat results with some enthusiasm, even now she was looking over the damage Kageo took and whistled.

"Wow Kageo, you got your ass handed to you back there."

"Yes, Professor, I did."

"Good effort, I guess. You didn't get ripped up as badly as I predicted."

"Thank you, Professor Kokonoe."

The way that he said that so sincerely did irk her a little bit, he always sounded like that, so grateful to work for her. She adjusted her silvervine pop and gave him a discerning look, as if she were trying to see what his angle was.

"Why do you always do that, Kageo?"

"Do what, Professor?"

"Sound so thankful, it can't be how you are all the time. Yet, you always sound so sure you are."

"Because I am grateful for you allowing me to be your agent, to give back the only way I know how."

"Right, now get back to organizing the lab."

"Okay, Professor Kokonoe!"

Kokonoe was quiet after he said this, then she just shook her head and turned away to go back to the data, she wasn't going to focus on thinking like that. He looked too much into the heart of a situation and that was why she felt that, though he was a good agent, it was why he wouldn't be fit for all purpose duty like Tager. This was one of the things that she tried to find an answer for in her spare time, as usually there was a motive to serving her. Lambda hadn't been given a choice and Tager felt that he owed her his life, and so never questioned her: it was Kageo who served her with an odd devotion and the occasional commentary. She had a minor curiosity when thinking of his reason, he always had some commentary or a question of her actions', despite never outright speaking out against the order.

Ignoring her mind's pointless blather, she continued examining the data that she read from Lambda's battle, she was able to ascertain the improvements from the data she'd been looking for. Lambda-11 had been able to analyze the mix-up of tactics and attacks that Kageo tried using with her and had summarily overpowered him. Lambda's performance had improved by 15% since the start of the tests, the battle data assisted her predictive stratagem computations the way she imagined it would. The next text would require someone with more power, she'd just send Lambda to meet up Tager for that end. It was her focus, Lambda was fast becoming a success, all of the investment finally paying off.

As she had Kageo get back to work within the hour after his test battle with Lambda, Kokonoe sat down at her workstation and went back to work. While she scanned the extra data directly from Lambda's input for anomalies, as she droned through the word, another part of her mind was in thought. She hated when she drifted, but it was easy to just think over all that she had done to come this far. It was another thing to ignore, that white noise when a mind wandered too much into mental territory. It was one of her least favorite things to consider: her morality and where it stood.

 _'Just when you think its settled...goddamn it.'_

Kokonoe's mind went on the rampage and immediately hit her with one thought that she didn't wish to broach. It was the thought about what she'd been doing in life, was her revenge worth so much? She was manipulating everything within arm's length of her to meet her purpose. Tager blindly followed her lead, rarely questioning her and even when he did, it never stopped his completing the task for her. Even as she spoke, Lambda's memory was being wiped again as she couldn't chance the stimuli from interacting with Kageo and herself trying to form a valid thought. She'd keep the battle data linked directly to Lambda's mind via a separate running stat link with her mind, but there would be no allowance of an outburst that happened between maintenance time.

 _'You know DAMN well why I'm doing that, there won't be a chance of her going berserk that way, it's for her own good.'_

 _ **'That's a good lie to tell yourself, you don't want her to get any personality, no showing anything off, since she is a tool. YOUR tool for revenge, finally something that we can use to get our bloody revenge.'**_ the more graphic part of her mind was picking to cut in now, telling her the exact reason she chose to do this.

 _'This conversation is terminated.'_

Kokonoe actively interrupted her mind's focus, she wasn't going to question her ethics when it came to using Lambda-11, she was a tool created by men and then cast aside like trash. She saved her, restored her functions, gave her a means for existence by grafting Nu-13's soul with her body and syncing them together. She gave the empty vessel what it lacked to function and cease decay, a soul, and she gave the useless soul a purpose to serve the body. She did exactly what should have been done by any good scientist would. It was the same thing with Kageo's life, she'd given him life and even some freedoms as long as he remembered who he served.

She'd taken that archaic system started by a madman and gave it shape and life, even though the calculations written in on it deemed it as impractical. The theory was presumed too costly and with too little payout as a result, yet she thought it an avenue worth exploring. She added one more to the Kaka population, enhanced by her genius and a completely unique system which enhanced him in prime functions: he was lucid, capable, and stronger than many of the present Kaka warriors. He'd proven to be one of her best agents so far, even though his Artifice Core System wasn't worth much in enhancement, she saw the merits in it. Kageo-kaka was one of the most competent stealth agents she could employ, the fact that the Kaka tribe were created to be bio-weapons of a kind didn't hurt at all.

Of all of her creations, Kageo was probably the most handful to deal with, at least when it came to his having an opinion. She took his data but had needed him to maintain a memory of functions, it was the only way to gauge if the A. was functioning at full capacity inside of him. It was that system which gave her an idea for the superior model that she'd created after 10 years of functioning without fail, she improved the design, increased the flow of energy gathering properties: using the same DNA to ensure its function, she merely tweaked a few things to make the process smoother. She had a functioning second Agent who was completely loyal to her, albeit the fact that the new agent fawned over **her** older genetic twin brother. Despite suffering from an energetic nature and constantly asking about Kageo, her second agent was a brilliant lab assistant.

"Damn it..." Kokonoe uttered to herself, as the first sign of verbal irritation over her overactive mind.

What did any of it matter? They all did what she said, when she said it. No one here was looking for absolution, certainly not her on such a matter. This was nothing, but simple conjecture and too much time to think. Her brain was a mess and the coffee, while sweetened to her liking, wasn't helping right now. Deciding quickly what might help, she called to the one person she knew would be getting her shot of espresso. She needed the extra caffeine to amp up her processing power, this would keep those pain in the thoughts out of her head!

"Kageo, get me a shot of espresso, pronto." her seemingly calm demeanor was lit with a notably line of annoyance upon her brow.

"Right away, Professor!" Kageo said this in mid lift of a box and carried it to its point of placement, before scurrying out of the room.

That made her smirk a little bit, he did always move his tail when she ordered it. Perhaps that was one thing that she didn't really mind, it was oddly amusing to her for whatever reason. But as he got her the espresso, she turned back to her work and began to type at a nearly blinding speed. This seemed to be in accordance with her desire to get the work done quickly; she had tests to run on her second experiment after all. The major calculations were being computed by her specifically designed program, she knew that she could count on it to finish without trouble once she wrote in by hand these latest personal notes.

It was maybe about 15 minutes that she was waiting before Kageo rushed back into the room, with an impeccable balance, he had managed to bring the small cup of espresso and hadn't spilled a single drop. He'd loaded it up with the high amounts of sugar that Kokonoe required, he made sure that he'd never make a mistake on that account. He'd seen the second assistant, as the Professor would call him, get chewed out for missing a single cube of sugar. He'd accounted for the bitterness of the espresso with a special silvervine mixture that acted as a sweetener. This was the only risk that he was taking: introducing a hand made sweetener that he used for his tea to give him a buzz, after a hard day of work.

"About time, thanks." she'd murmur as she drew the espresso cup to her lips and sipped it.

As Kageo got back to work at her mentioning it, he never witnessed the look that slipped across her face, one of surprise that sat there for several seconds. She could taste little to no bitterness at all, in fact she found it inviting and pleasant at her second sip. She savored the taste and found herself sipping more of the cup, leaving the espresso around half full within a few moments. The sweet sensation was one that she found herself desperately enjoying, she couldn't entirely identify the blend of whatever sweetener was in here. Looking up at the Kaka moving around the lab with box in hand, it was just as he set it down that she called for him.

"Kageo, get over here." her words sounding neutral enough, she was in a better mood.

"Of course, Professor. What is it?" this said as he stopped what he was doing and moved to stand in front of her.

"This sweetener, what's in it? I taste more than just the exact amount of sugar I told you once to put in." she wanted to know so that she could have it.

"That's a personal blend I've made, using the silvervine I found around the village, after purifying a little bit of it and a few other things to it. It has a sweet taste that I find just right, I hoped that it would be good enough to dull the edge on the bitterness of espresso." Kageo felt that he explained too much, though she didn't tell him not to.

"Excellent, make sure you use then when I ask for espresso, and put this in the coffee from now on. You'll have to give me that recipe, this is my new favorite." Kokonoe said that with a grin, it implied what Kageo thought it might.

"I'll get the recipe to you posthaste, Professor." Kageo promised that he'd get her the recipe and by that end also supply her with what she asked for.

Such as it was, the fact that he was so eager to please was just another thing she kept in mind. It was another oddity of the Kaka under her authority, still it was a minor detail that she needn't worry about. She went back to work and sipped the espresso a bit of the time, not wasting much time as she completed endless lines of code. There was little that she found in her interest as she finished working on the code for Lambda for the time being, she was finally done with it and seemed pleased with the work. Though as she stood up, she found the entire area to her right devoid of both boxes and papers, it seemed that Kageo had finished moving the things before she imagined he would.

Though as she looked to see where the Kaka was, he hadn't been in the lab for some time by the looks of it. Her nose twitched softly with the usual scent of his a soft scent of woods, jade incense, and hints of sweat lingered under her olfactory sense. While she didn't make a large habit of it, some skills of her father's upbringing were just embedded in her, this meant tracking how long ago Kageo had been in the room. She broke it down to around 40 minutes ago, at least within that ball park of time. The only reason that it mattered was because she was going to give him his tasks for the following day.

"What is Kageo-kaka's location?" she'd ask the holo computer, not wanting to waste time manually typing it in.

Once it displayed his location, in a training room, she headed for it and muttered something rather ironic, "Doesn't that Kaka ever take a break?"

She was simply amusing herself on the fact that he took this time to train in the night or early morning hours when done with his duties. It was a dedication that she expected, though the way that it was delivered, always differed from each of her underlings. Still she peaked in, a little surprised to see him engaging in serious combat. It was a creative way to improve, though taxing as she'd seen. He seemed to come along in his own way, it was kind of admirable to note. As she watched Kageo strike down the holographic opponent, it was to such that she found herself bearing a bit of pride in what she saw.

"Not bad Kageo, you've been busy improving I see."

"Oh, Professor! I didn't expect you, but thank you."

The compliment was why he thanked her, he was happy due to it and smiling. Of course she hadn't come here just to give him a small word of notice to his improvement, she had a simple reason to be here and she got right to it.

"Kageo, tomorrow I want you to head to Kagutsuchi, meet up with Tager and scout the area, I need to know what's going on in the local around. I'm prepping the next text for Lambda."

"Of course Professor, I'll scout Kagutsuchi and get back to you asap."

"That's what I like to hear, make sure you get all of Kagutsuchi."

"Absolutely my plan, Professor."

The small exchange ended with Kokonoe giving him one last look before she turned to leave. She couldn't help but be amused by his choice, there it was: her expectations and like anyone else there was no problem with it. This devotion differed from Tager, that kind of loyalty could never be bought, but from Tager it was a stringent need to repay the debt for his life. But Kageo's own came at a price of a mixture of several things she was aware of: his on-going crush on her (which she knew he thought he hid), his pride, and some other pushy motivation that she had yet to identify. Still she had reservations about what he was after, she had seen this child from his development to now and still, despite knowing everything about him and creating his superior project; the bottom line remained that she couldn't fully understand his motivations.

She could have seen that he was controlled from the ground up and chose to leave him with a clever mind, as clever as a Kaka would get anyway. The whole thing bugged her since he spoke his opinion freely, sometimes in opposition to what she ordered; but then he went back and did what she asked without a word. The whole thing that seemed to be swallowing her damnable feline curiosity was the simple understanding for why. He could've complained more, bitched at her about ethics or hazards, and yet he just gave her that knowing smile and went about his business of doing as she asked. Perhaps it was that genuine nature of the smile and not just one of those enigmatic smiles that the Kaka tribe were known for.

 _'It doesn't what the damned cat does, he works for me and that is exactly what I expect of him. He knows what happens when he fails me, there's a piper to pay for those losses.'  
_

 _ **'Part of you does wonder why he bothers trying to leave buoys for us. We aren't going to turn around from our goals, right? Anything to get revenge, a few fatalities, what's more blood on the hands? Nothing not worth the life of that scum.'**_

 _'Right, that's the last time I start paying attention to my own thoughts.'_

Her sarcasm was not lost on herself, as it helped her cut through the troubling thoughts. She was going to do what she needed to do, no matter what the cost: that was a fact. But she couldn't help but feel guilty somewhat along the way, even though she'd closed off much of herself, she was not beyond reproach. Parts of her did still flinch at that knowing fact that someone would disapprove, though who were close to her now, and that would bother her. But her conscience had no place getting in the way of her revenge. She'd let her soul be damned for all eternity as long as she could have his head on a platter, that one bastard who ruined her life completely.

"You'll get your comeuppance soon, Yuuki Terumi." her final words for the evening, spoken with true venom lining them. They were the last thing to remind her of her overall goal, the thing she took with her back into the lab as she went back to work.

(End Chapter)

And thus we end Chapter One of the Professor's notes, its been a little rough trying to balance her mental thoughts, views from her perspective, and views from Kageo-kaka's perspective as well. The whole point of this is that we're getting the view from the person who'd spend the most time nearest the Professor and have his own thoughts to express. Two of the major players in this whole account, as though Tager spends time with Kokonoe, he also doesn't question her enough or in the ways that would really have her concerned. So, though that will be present, the real fun will be how Kokonoe responds. Either way, we'll be discussing that in the follow chapters! Hope you enjoyed it, please Read & Review!

Till next time adieu.

-Quentix Starwing


	3. Chapter: Sticking to the Plan

A/N: The second chapter begins with the intense period that is the period around the Continuum shift period. We'll be seeing what happens as the Professor confronts her feelings on a scenario that fast unfolds before her eyes. It leaves her with more questions than answers and not all of them about her plan. What moral questions will plague her mind? Let us find out together, as we get this chapter underway.

(End A/N)

Chapter II: Sticking to the Plan

As it always does, time flies by, and with the tests of Lambda-11 proceeding successfully, she felt no particular draw to deter her deployment. She had sent her infiltration agent in around 2 weeks ago. By now he was giving her constant updates on Kagutsuchi's situation: updates on the lack of Librarium soldiers in the city, rumors from the shadows and populace. There was nothing that would halt the operation of her movements so far. It had been going well for too long, this was exactly why she didn't like the info she received.

"Something isn't right and I just don't know what the hell it is yet. But I know that 'he' is responsible for it." Kokonoe would never question who was responsible for things going sideways.

Though she had no reason to imagine anything but the worst scenario for the operation, things were still primed to go. She had plans to destroy Terumi with Lambda, and she felt that it would be met with success. She ran many a scenario and numbers looked good, as long as Lambda didn't take any damage. She knew of Terumi's Nox Nyctores, Ouroboros and the kind of damage it could do. Her mother had created these fiendishly powerful weapons and the man who killed her still had the same one from the war.

'I'll pry it from his cold, dead fingers, that's what the hell I'll do.'

Her mind was restless since the start of the operation over a month ago. Since the salvage and refitting Lambda with the IDEA Engine, all of it had taken a boat load of data and hands on operations. But it was all presently working and leaving her with little reason to doubt her success. She felt that there had to be some worth in this plan, there was nothing that she wouldn't do for her revenge. A dish best served cold, that was the saying about it, and she was prepared to have an icy feast with him dead. Her thoughts were cut short as she heard a transmission from Kageo, it was one she was waiting for.

"-Professor, I've arrived at the Cathedral level, there is still no sign of anything. Nor has there been any movement or signs of life throughout this recent inspect.-" Kageo's voice came over clear for the moment.

"Good, complete scanning the floors, look for anything out of the ordinary, Kageo. This is your last check, then you're coming back, effective immediately." Kokonoe's tone was strict, there would be no arguments here.

"-Are you certain? I could at least help ensure things are all ready for the operation before I leave.-" the finality of her tone is exactly what prompted Kageo's question of the order.

"I think I already said what I have to say, finish the scan. Out." Kokonoe cut his question off at the roots, there wasn't going to be any screwing up here.

The reason for Kageo's return was simple: if anything went south, she wouldn't chance losing multiple agents. It had been since the Civil war and the loss of so many units that it became a policy for her. Practicality was her middle name after all, you never stock all of your resources in one basket. She invested too much in that damned Kaka to see him wiped out over some brave act. Knowing that her very foolish underling had a bad habit for heroics came from experience.

Though something small broke her concentration, there was a lag on her feed of the information. She wasn't sure what was causing it, but being as meticulous as she was, every single computational cycle was under her scrutiny. It didn't take her very long to figure out that something was slowing the data feed down. It took her no less than two minutes of scanning through her systems to find a relay bug in the computer.

"Sonuvabitch." she cursed and started tracking down the terminal responsible for the signal.

She'd be damned if she'd have anyone from that stupid council or some ambitious lab tech trying to know what she was up to. Her defenses were impenetrable to the average layman, let alone some idiotic bunch of bureaucrats. As soon as she isolated the variables, it took her a few minutes more to break down the encryption code protecting the bug. The algorithms were unexpected, but basics that she'd seen used before. In fact, she knew them because they were her own!

"Goddammit, get in here, you damned Kaka!" Kokonoe's frustrated tone came out as she stopped typing and had yelled towards the side door to her lab.

After several moments of some shuffling being heard, a door that was normally sealed off; opened up and from it emerged a kaka. She was wearing a specialized Kaka jacket beneath a lab coat. Her snow leopard print hair and tail would have been a dead giveaway as to who she looked like; that is if anyone paid attention to such details. As she adjusted her hood, with soft blue glowing eyes; which looked defeated after being found out. She stepped forward and nervously addressed the Professor.

"Y-Yes, Professor?" the lab assistant spoke up.

"You KNOW exactly why I called for you. What the hell did you think you were doing with that bug?!" Kokonoe's eyes glared daggers of annoyance at her.

Shrinking somewhat under the gaze, the assistant cleared her throat and spoke up, "I was reading and reviewing the function data of Kageo-kaka, Professor. I thought it was to make for a good note comparison against my own test data."

Kokonoe let off a harsh laugh, showing that she was not amused by the weak excuse at all.

"Oh Come on, Kagina, give me some credit. You don't think that I KNOW exactly why your watching the data? I've already told you, its irrelevant. You are the superior of the two of you, in every way possible. Your project was to bring out the best in all of the present success of a half-successful experiment. Period." Kokonoe's matter-of-fact tone made the female kaka flinch slightly and her tail beat against a nearby box.

"That's not entirely true Professor, my brother has outperformed me in many of the virtual training tests. His stats are higher, out of pure basis of data. I find that illogical, I can't accept that. Exactly for the reasons you say." she sounded more convincing with this determination.

Looking at the taller Kaka from her seat, Kokonoe huffed at the persistent excuse. She was sure tenacious today for whatever reason, putting together some crap terminal and planting a bug? It was getting harder and harder to keep the curiosity down about her brother, she imagined. It irked her to no end, since she tried a lot to keep them separate. Of course, she just had to take the DNA from Kageo to ensure that the refined ACS worked and everything; now she was paying for that in spades.

"Oh please, you're not that naïve and you know it. You lack experience, nothing more and nothing less. He's completed more field missions, gained active fighting experience from those missions. He is your genetic twin, that's true, but that is where similarities end. You can outperform him in every which way possible, your testing has been spiking since I first showed you his data. And now, you want to meet him." Kokonoe knew the reason why she had elaborately been reading the data.

Kagina looked up defeated, she had been found out yet again. Though the reasoning had always been different to try and look at something related to her older twin. She couldn't believe that her brother was inferior, in truth she believed the opposite of that. He was an anomaly, even if one well within Kokonoe's projected parameters. There was no reason with wanting to meet her twin, and yet Kokonoe had denied her at every turn.

"Alright, fine Professor. I'll admit that I just want to meet my twin and get to know him, everything that I have of him isn't something real enough for me. Seeing him in person, talking with him, and even hugging him would make it real." she didn't think this was an unreasonable request.

"You possess all of his battle data via updates, every single of his memories, training modules completed, and more. It probably only makes you more curious I imagine. But listen to me, Kagina, he'll only distract you. This isn't time for you to get sentimental, alright? Knowing he's alive and well show be enough for you, he's not in any real danger that he can't handle. He'll be back really soon actually, can't that be enough?" Kokonoe did not want the two meeting up yet, it was not time for it.

"I want to say yes, but I'd be lying, Professor. That's not what I want to do before you." Kagina frowned and admitted this that it wasn't enough.

"Ha, you couldn't lie well enough anyway, you idiot. But that aside, you should realize the simple fact I don't want you meeting him. You are everything he is not for one, superior to him in every which way as I've said. You're even smarter than he is, Kagina. Don't you think that he'd blow a gasket finding out I created you from scratch off a desire to make his failings better?" Kokonoe resorted to some half-truths in order to get Kagina's curiosity tucked away.

"Well...he might be upset, yes, I've thought about that. B-But I can just tell him that's not the case, I'm just his sister!" Kagina tried to argue something of a weak point. Her brother wasn't that shallow.

"And if he malfunctions because he thinks I made you to replace him? Then what..? The mind is a horrible thing to lose, he might well snap like a chicken wire when stretched beyond capacity. Kageo is malleable, but even he might not survive this. That's not what I want, do you?" Kokonoe said this softly, knowing that it was starting to take effect.

"...No, I don't, Professor. I couldn't stand the thought of being responsible for hurting him in any way." Kagina's defeat on the subject now complete, she submitted herself to that fact.

Kokonoe sighed gently, having hated to do that to Kagina. But the Kaka was a bit too smart for her own good, figuring out computers over something as small as her brother was troublesome enough. She needed to keep her corralled long enough to secure several things. Eventually Kageo would find out, if he hadn't already held some suspicions about it. She had kept him busy, but that damned Kaka was always so perceptive.

Even she didn't realize what gave him such insight when things concerned her. She interrupted her own thoughts, as she needed to get Kagina back to work.

"I need you to crunch some data for me okay? All of Lambda's battle data so far." feeling a little bad about lying to her assistant was a pain in the ass, but she added something for Kagina's benefit. "This includes recent battle number from your brother, I need you to compare them, table them, and send the data back to me, okay?"

"Alright, I'll have it done as quickly as possible!" this did seem to perk her up a little bit.

"Good girl, go to it Kagina." the professor let off a light sigh after saying this.

Kagina scampered back into the other room quickly to look at the data. Kokonoe knew that she was going to study it to death, that would keep her sated for a short time likely. While she hated having to lie to Kagina, it was better than telling her the real reason why. The simple reason that Kageo's upgrade wasn't ready was it. It was true that even she didn't know how Kageo would respond to having a genetic twin sister, but if she had upgraded him then it did not matter.

'Well done, you just shattered your project's dreams. But I suppose it doesn't matter, she IS just another means to an end. Another weapon in the arsenal.'

Kokonoe ignored the thought and went back to number crunching herself. She was finishing up the calculations on the teleportation figures. The program itself was ready, but without the proper degrees of math, she would warp her latest project into oblivion. That was not an option, simply put: there was nothing less than success that she'd accept. The figures were almost properly checked by now.

She stopped thinking now about anything else and just focused. There were going to be more factors to check on later, so first these numbers and then the next one. Kokonoe put all else out of her mind, it was time for the zen of her craft. This was what she lived for some nights, nothing but mindless number crunching nights fueled by coffee. Yeah, this was the life for her, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

-Four days later-

It had been a strong, tireless effort that was used to manage a boat load of unexpected issues. A few things failing, numbers being wrong despite scrutiny of the Professor and her assistant. But all in all it could have been a worse few days to pass. Kageo brought some strange file back that he'd picked up in the Librarium offices. A strange document that had mentioned things only in vague, historical references.

There was no hard data in the file that she detected, but she was running the words through a serious check. She had found herself anxious to find out what it was about. But with no answers from her computer after scanning the document, she had to be patient. Keeping herself straight on task was hard to do, given that she might have a doubt. There was nothing quite like a mystery document to mess up months of planning in a single instant.

Still even with the initial failing aside, Kageo's return had been good with this here. She had something tangible and didn't have to read through his visual files to see it. There was no footage to study, just a straight up document. This was positively the best that she'd gotten from him in some time. It was easy to see that she was in somewhat of a chipper mood given that.

For Kageo, he was presently standing nearby Lambda at the end of a spar. It was one that he'd managed to weather pretty well this time. Though she had controlled the pace of battle, he dictated how little damage that he'd take this time. It was some ingenuity based upon the past few encounters of the flawless and near relentless assault that she was capable of. Lambda-11 was a brilliant means of power, compared to him: he was quite outclassed and didn't mind knowing that.

"You know, that was one helluva battle back there, Lambda. You really are powerful, I am sure that you'll make the Professor happy. And maybe...maybe even yourself, through success you know?" Kageo spoke to the Prime Field and still asked her the simple question.

He received nothing more than an expressionless look. She was in stand-by mode and was not presently doing anything except awaiting the Professor's next command. But still, Kageo went on as he found himself talkative tonight.

"Heh, it's alright, I don't imagine you'd get the chance to answer me. But I want you to know, I look up to you and I intend to make sure that I keep pace!" he'd say this with some fervor before parting his spear into two segments and tucking them away.

The Kaka went back to work in the storage room for Kokonoe. He had been given orders to clean up the mess made by her whens he passed through, taking what she needed from spare parts or random grabs that she made. It was one of those things that amused him greatly, he found no need to focus too hard when cleaning up. He just thought of it as doing her another, never to be paid favor. It was certainly one thing to say that it was an endless debt that would never be paid back.

As he hoisted one box and moved it up to a higher shelf, he went about the placement of another box and found a good rhythm for it. A few minutes became an hour, then several hours had passed. Time flew successfully and Kageo actually managed a feat, getting everything back into place. The room was complete, and with that he headed out. His mind briefly on the Professor's degree of focus on this venture was noted.

It was always known that Kokonoe was something of a machine when it came to her work. But to see her in such a brainstorm over every little factor had him wondering some things. Her focus and resolve were as steel, nay perhaps a much harder metal than that. He was always in wonder over whether or not she ever gave herself a break. Without much thought to his next move, he headed to the lab to see if he could get her any last minute things.

-In Kokonoe's Lab-

The Professor typed away as the time of day hardly mattered to her. The success of her mission ahead, that was all that mattered and her coffee was looking low again. She'd have to buzz some random idiot to get her coffee again and that annoyed her. Just as she got ready to press the intercom, she found the lab doors opening. To her surprise, Kageo was on the way in for whatever reason.

"Kageo, good. I need some more coffee, with the sweetener that you used, same amount of sugar as well. Pronto." the pink haired scientist was eager to keep at it and with his appearance, her struggle to function without sugar would be abated.

Without batting an eye, Kageo agreed to the simple duty, "Alright, Professor, I'll be back soon then."

He headed off quickly and went to brew the coffee. It was one of those things, that even if there was a pot made, that Kokonoe preferred the most fresh. The kaka made sure to get a strong coffee nut to wake her up, this and the sweetener could boost the effectiveness. With his coffee brewing skills being put to the test, he made sure to focus on it and had the pot made as quickly as possible. It was maybe one minute after brew was done, that Kageo poured the coffee and mixed it up well.

Returning to Kokonoe in record time, once more without spilling a drop of coffee, he made it back to the lab.

"Here you go, Professor, your coffee." the Kaka held it out to her, still wearing the usual, friendly smile his tribe were known for.

"Thanks, Kageo." Kokonoe responded as she took the coffee and drew it to her lips, before sipping it down.

With a pleased look on her face, she set the coffee down and instantly felt the kick. Perhaps it was the twinge of silvervine used in the blend, along with the fact that it was a stronger bean than the normal brews. Everything about coffee screamed that it was fresh. It wasn't perfect, but she'd be damned if it wasn't one of the best she'd had. At least compared to the average coffee given her by that good for nothing lab assistant or tech, whatever the hell he was.

"Alright, now what's on your mind, Kageo? You didn't come here to give me coffee, though it is damn good." she addressed the matter she expected and even managed to compliment him in the same breath.

"I was just worried about your well being. I know you will do things your way, but that's just it, concern for your state of being." Kageo didn't beat around the bush, he knew from past times of bringing it up; direct was always the best approach.

Kokonoe gave a small smirk at this, he was certainly confident about the mention this time around. It pleased her that he'd learned from the first conversation they had some time ago.

"Your concern is noted, Kageo, anything else?" she tried being curt, testing the Kaka's response to her callous response.

He knew that she could be rude, grumpy, or anything else if she was busy. Nonetheless, he felt that addressing the situation would be best.

"I believe that even you might need a break, Professor Kokonoe. You shouldn't work so hard, even if it IS your nature. I think at least taking time to chat with someone or read a good book might help." he gave something of an expanded opinion on what he thought she might do with her time.

The very concept of his words made her huff, she had a look in her eyes that said 'is that so?' while looking upon Kageo. She had even stopped typing, since he was being more forward than she imagined he had the guts for. This required her attention, at the very least he could take solace in that fact.

"That's quite an opinion you have there, Dr. Feelgood. What brings this up? Your concern is something I am well aware of, what brought this on?" Kokonoe was going to see where this went, though she doubted he'd get the Dr. Feelgood reference, after all it was some really really old literature that she'd read that in some long time ago.

He grinned gently at her reference, certainly it wasn't something he fully understood, but shuffling through the database he had made it easy. It was a rather obscure character reference, though he didn't verbally acknowledge it.

"You were waiting for something more than just my concern, so I gave you an opinion. Take it or leave, as the saying goes." he left it open, since he doubted she'd care for a long explanation.

He certainly had guts to say it in such a way, in truth it was nice to see he had a little snap to his normally, formal methods of speech. He was also so nice to the point that it hurt her teeth. But this little bit of attitude was just enough to be refreshing. As it amused her enough, she decided to pursue the reason behind his suggestion. It was a waste of time, but what the hell...she hadn't really done much but work for the past 22 hours anyway.

"Fair enough, but why just those options? There are a million other things I could do with my time, including a nap, why something so bland?" she prodded his reasons and made them seem lousy as choices.

Kageo hadn't needed to think in response, as he had a specific reason why he chose his choices. "That's easy, Professor. You don't waste your time with what you do generally, reading a book is knowledge and talking is at least stimulating. Doesn't matter if its pointless or not, as long as its interesting."

That made Kokonoe quirk a brow, it may not have been 100%, but it was pretty accurate as to what he said. She preferred not to waste much of her time if she were being productive. Even in leisure, the option tended to be useful to her in some way. Though she found it a tad odd that he was aware of it. Sure he was here all of the time, but how much attention was he paying?

"That is a little too precise, Kageo. I'd call you a stalker, but naturally you work here. What has you so knowledgeable? I haven't noticed anything in your mental data to suggest you have facets open to focus on me or anything." of which she did look for anything odd or abnormal. She preferred to be ready for any such situation, including off kilter underlings.

"Just having open ears, Professor. Nothing that special about my being around, with the way you ensured I hear everything in the area and could filter through it. It'd be odd if my hearing wasn't up to such a relatively mundane task, in comparison to my missions." Kageo was free to be matter-of-fact about this answer, since she designed him to be that good.

That made her smirk a bit, it was a bit of pride in the fact that he had the capacity for such a thing. He'd analyzed the small situations from each time that she talked, and was able to make some decent calls. He would have to be good enough for such a small thing and she made sure he was. He was pretty good at saying the right stuff to her as well, that was for sure. Just enough to stroke her ego and yet to give off a hint of sass with his words, this was more fun as a distraction than she thought at first.

"Fair enough, but who are you referring that I talk to? Or how about the book choice? It's bland to leave me without an option." she pressed him a bit more, having a bit of fun at his expense.

"And impose my thoughts on what you should read or who's worthy of your time for chatting? I wouldn't dream of it, Professor." his comment was stated factually, but with a hint or sarcasm in there.

The sarcasm made her laugh a moment, a few seconds worth was good for a genuine chuckle out of her. Though she ceased laughing within moments, despite still wearing something of a smile.

"Damn right, Kageo. I decide what I do with my time and all things attached to it. It's nice to see you know that much, and look at that, you've managed to take up some time of mine." the fact had not been lost on her, she let it happen naturally.

Kageo gave her a light nod and responded to her in a clever manner once again, "And I thank you for humbly considering me worth precious minutes from your schedule. I am amazed that so much time had passed as we chatted."

Kokonoe was analyzing his word choice, the statements made, and how he said them. This was getting rather fun for her, he had a good answer for every one of her statements or questions so far. That was a good range covered by him, there were more layers than she knew. She intended to uncover the sides of him that he didn't show. For her curiosity sake she would, it might be fun peeling those layers off like an onion.

"You've been a gracious chatting partner, but you should get to bed. While the mission is ongoing, you'll be busy in the lab here with me." her words were simple truth, he'd be doing as she asked of him.

"Alright, well in that case, good night Professor." he said as he turned to go, this had been a good night.

"And call me Kokonoe, honestly. You may be my underling but you're not a slave or anything. The formality is annoying, Kageo." she'd had enough of that, especially since she got that same degree of formality from his genetic twin.

"Alright, Kokonoe." he nodded to her again, smiling oddly before heading off.

With that marked the end of another early morning. Kageo had gone to sleep and Kokonoe stayed up for another hour or two typing away at the mission's expense. The next few days passing without much incident. Aside from Kokonoe keeping Kagina busy and giving Kageo more tasks of a menial nature to attend to, along with the mission on hand it was starting to bug her. She was making due despite all that she attended to.

The days bled into weeks of work and all of the dodging Kagina verbally was a pain in the ass, but still Kokonoe dealt with it all in clever ways. The time that passed so smoothly, quickly came to be an ominous sign of things to come. It was incredible to have all of her plans starting to unfold before her very eyes. Utterly incredible to find that Ragna the Bloodedge was a bigger fool than she'd first thought. Even with words of caution, he ignored her after defeating Tager in battle. To find that Terumi was the one making all of the gears turn.

She had gone from an anxious mess of the mind to a complete level of having migraines even now. She tried to figure out what was going on, getting in communication with the double agent she had. She tried to ensure that they could at least secure Noel Vermillion before all of this went on. But even by now, this fell through. It was a cascading impact that utterly drove her mad. The fact that Rachel had let loose Hakumen looming in the back of her mind.

"God. Dammit." she cussed while running her fingers back through her hair and over her ears.

With her twin tails both whipping in her irritation, building frustration, and having a desperate need to punch something. But no, she wouldn't do that, she had no time for pointless anger. Part of her hated the fact that she kept it tucked away, saving it as she trained herself. Lambda was the last part of this she could count on. Her fist hit the side of the desk and gained a small depression from the impact.

This was another reason she restrained herself, she'd need to hit the gym later at some point. To work out this anger, since she wasn't keeping it in check like she normally did. Though all of this was secondary and if that tertiary in nature. The mission had to stay underway, bumpy and crappy as the road was now. Her hand loosened and she took a deep breath and let off as much as her anger as she could.

"Lambda, you are to refrain from combat, strike when the target's guard is done, understood? Under no circumstance are you to get involved." the fact that Lambda had been assaulted directly by the likes of Phantom and confronted by Relius Clover, she wasn't taking any chances and had her functioning in manual mode and responding to her direct orders.

"Understood." the monotone voice was laced with restrained feelings, but seemed completely obedient.

And while Kokonoe saw Ragna the Bloodedge fighting a fruitless battle, struggling against Terumi's power, she stood unflinching. Waiting for his sacrifice if need be to give her an opening to command Lambda in. It was just when Ragna was staggering back to his feet that Lambda started to function on her own. She was boosting towards the battle, not hanging back as she planned. Kokonoe tried to issue keyboard commands to halt her, trying desperate string after string of code to no avail.

"Hold it, damn it! Lambda, don't move in yet, its not time!" as she screamed the command for her to stop, all she could do is watch as this too fell apart.

Lambda took an attack meant to kill Ragna, sustaining a high degree of damage. Enough that her power output was no longer sufficient to harm Terumi.

"Get out of there, Lambda. You can't do any good now!" these words too, ignored by the stray unit.

"Attacking." Lambda's voice speaking on the attempt in what was a hopeless attempt.

"No, no Lambda, damn it!" her words falling on deaf ears.

The degree of things that would play out before her eyes remained there, etched forever into her mind. Lambda's death and the IDEA Engine suddenly unifying with Ragna the Bloodedge's arm. It should have been improbable without any work from her side, all of it was a blur. She had tried her best to pick up the pieces of her mind to tell Ragna what to do.

"Ragna the Bloodedge, use the IDEA Engine! It's synced up with your Azure Grimoire, don't hesitate!" Kokonoe wasn't taking a chance, this was still the best chance for her revenge.

Though she could only witness it, watching a thorough beating given to Terumi by Ragna was gratifying. It was a way of seeing how he was thrashed that brought her some minor solace, though not much. The events would unfold and leave her with her thoughts.

"I'm...so sorry, Lambda." she said this just once, the hint of emotion lingering behind her words.

True remorse over failing to see Lambda executed why she was brought back. She felt that she had failed her all but completely, this was not why she brought her back. Bringing her back and setting her up to be killed again, this was where the guilt lay. Not just the investment of time, but that in a person, since she knew so often she'd tell Lambda that she would strike a powerful blow.

Yet she failed to have her do anything more than perish tragically. While she was thinking about how she'd failed, it would be the voice of someone she never thought that she'd hear that brought her back out. She had witnessed the loss of Ragna's arm, the miraculous rescue of Noel Vermillion's life. Before all of it came full circle, with the Imperator of the N.O.L. herself appearing before the ragtag remains of everyone below near the Cauldron. Hearing the words spoken by the vile woman and her apparent underlings as well.

All of it just fouled her mood, even though she was melancholy before; now she was just furious. To think that even that disgusting creature, Terumi, was just a pawn in someone's greater plan. Everything seemed to make a great point, aimed for one final end game. She wanted to end the world? Oh like hell was that happening.

She went into her new phase, she had a lot of planning to do, contacts to be made. There was a lot that would be on her plate during the next period of time between an actual counter offensive. Kokonoe loathed being on the defense, but aside from getting things straight and tying up loose ends, there was now a boatload of work to do.

As the Professor rose from her seat, hands rubbing the sides of her head, she left the lab without question and went towards her room. That was right, she actually had a room to visit that she slept. It was a pure mess naturally, she was in and out at her leisure and none of it mattered. Still with a silvervine pop in her mouth, she entered the room and changed into some gym attire. The idea of destroying a punching bag or two sounded really, really good to her all of a sudden.

She needed some time to just get this out of her system. Kokonoe was grinning at nothing as she switched from her iconic capris and the lab coat, to a pair of yoga pants and sports bra. It was a policy to anyone who wanted to keep their eyes, that staring at her was the absolute worst idea in their life. Even if she was dressed like this, to do it would draw her attentions and that was a mistake. She stormed down the empty halls and hit the first gym nearest to her and stepped inside.

Without paying any mind to nearly empty gym, Kokonoe approached the punching bag and after she'd cooled somewhat on her walk over; she taped her hands up and started to hit the bag. Opposite to contrary belief, Kokonoe was an avid visitor of the gym at her own option. She more than knew self-defense and could easily pummel anyone stupid enough to think her small size meant anything. It was the first punch hitting the bag that made her smile, it swayed under just a light jab. It had seen nothing yet, and as the bag swayed back to her she kicked it.

The straight kick made the bag flop under her strength. It made her quirk a brow, were these the new reinforced bags? This was a joke, she hit it and it was folding under her strength with ease. She ignored the thought and while planning to make a bag actually tough enough for her; she resumed practicing quick punch-kick combinations on the bag. Hate it as she might some days, her roots with her father, the Kaka clan, all of it was second nature to her.

For the next two hours straight, Kokonoe focused on the bag, practicing all of the martial combat her father taught her. His words of advice were useful, years after she'd heard them as a child. He made games out of the training for her, it had helped in part. Though she stopped thinking about him, that useless old man...he left and it was his fault. She grumbled and punched the bag hard enough that finally gave way under the pressure.

The chains holding the bag snapped and the bag tumbled through the air before bouncing once and rolling onto the wrestling mat. Kokonoe cursed and went to the bag, walking as she was just getting into a groove. Her nature was meticulous and that meant, she had to practice EVERYTHING she used. The magic wasn't something for here, but instead her special training room in her main lab setting. With an annoyed scowl on her face, she scooped up the bag over her shoulder.

Once she dumped it off in the corner, she figured there was at least one more location she could work out.

"Holo-training." she murmured in verbal agreement with her mindset.

She needed a place to finish up and taking on a few holograms wouldn't be bad in her mind. She would pay little mind to the thought, leaving the bag to be fixed by the staff. Once she was in the hall, her mind briefly focused on how things were. She still felt pretty numb and wanted to make it all go away. The training was at least helpful, keeping her up to date and tone at the same time.

As soon as she made it to the door, she entered the lobby of the training room. There she saw that it was in use and spotted the name on the door with a light smirk.

"Kageo, why am I not surprised?" it was an easy thing to be amused by. He was training probably because he finished his tasks for the day, it was early too.

She was not huge on training with others normally, but perhaps he'd provide a distraction. It was an unusual consideration, but hell if it mattered. She wanted to see that she trained thoroughly, so she decided to get invested with it. She wondered how he'd take to suddenly having her come into the room? It wasn't like she went training every day, it was a well planned and a thing she preferred to do in seclusion.

"Continue current training program while allowing manual entry, manual override: Professor Kokonoe." the code given was naturally her name and in her tone, nothing easily mimicked by most standards.

As the computer acknowledged her command, the automatic doors hissed and opened up. It revealed an industrial zone battleground, something of a warehouse and she saw Kageo had an array of attacking enemies. She recognized this from the setting panel she briefly scanned over before coming in. It was an unlimited generation number that would appear, up to about 6 armed fighters, lightly armored were to appear as a maximum. Kokonoe watched as he faced the melee weapon wielding foes with his spear. She really didn't pay much mind to more than his data input at times, but it was different to see his dexterity first hand.

Witnessing his skill firsthand was a rare thing, he hadn't even noticed that she had come into the room and that the doors had closed. The spear was a whipping, blurred motion of circular sweeps. She watched him keep the six men at bay with each swing being a precise measure, though the spear was not yet released from its sealed for. His speed seemed to had increased since last she witnessed it in numbers. She chose to get involved just then, not minding that she was unarmed; she darted over to one of the men that had retreated from the spear.

"Hyah!" a straight punch slammed into the side of the man's stomach and raised him off the ground and launched him into the side of the warehouse wall.

The other five men were surprised, their AIs designed to anticipate surprises; they had not expected another fighter. From the look on Kageo's face, neither had he, and seeing Professor Kokonoe in person was a big surprise. She interjected briefly, to clear up the confusion on both parts of her underling and the AI.

"Yes, yes gentlemen, the surprise is over. I'm an enemy, so fight me." then her eyes had shifted to Kageo as she spoke. "I expect a good show from you too, Kageo. Nothing changes, I've simply joined the fray."

Giving a soft nod, the Kaka returned to stab the first of the stunned men in the chest. It was a quick-kill maneuver. He used the man's body as a means to vault out of the surrounded position he had been in and off to the right of the men. The remaining four men split into two teams: with one man with tonfas and a second with a staff approaching Kageo,m while the second pair: a man with a sword and a second with an single headed axe approached her.

"Don't disappoint me boys, I didn't come to be bored." with a sound of impatience and annoyance hinted in her tone, Kokonoe moved to meet both of them half way.

As she found the men working together, swinging at her from both her left and right sides; she stepped back and avoided both swings. As the man with the sword thrust the tip at her center, Koko sidestepped the attack and punched the man hard across his face. The man flew harshly towards the ground since she didn't hold back any strength. With her attention on the second man, she brought her hand up and grabbed the shaft of the axe, halting its progression towards her. She briefly let it sink into the hologram that she was not struggling as she held it back.

"Pathetic." was her response, it was a chance to express some of her inner struggles.

With a second powerful punch to the chest of the hologram man, she watched him fly into the air and had dropped his weapon at once. Turning to see how Kageo was doing, she had looked just in time to see him breaking the guard of the tonfa wielding man. His spear came down and was blocked, then drew back a quarter inch and thrust forward and was parried again by the second tonfa. At that moment after being parried that Kageo whipped his spear in a circular motion, and opened the man's guard prior to thrusting the spear into the man's chest. As the man fell and scattered into pieces of light, Kokonoe approached Kageo with a pleased smirk on her face.

"Not bad, at least a little stimulating. It seems the data barely reveals your capacity for dexterity I see." Kokonoe was always aware of things and though she had values assigned to it, he just didn't push himself under circumstances.

"I need to break my latest plateau, that's why I've been working a bit harder lately." he was motivated by such things to pick up his skill. It was a thing that he desperately enjoyed, improving his skill with a minimal importance on the results.

"Hm, maybe the best way to get the data is to test you myself." Kokonoe seemed to be insinuating this setting and training wasn't enough. Before she decided that was exactly what they'd be doing. "Discontinue generation of the opponents."

Kageo was looking on somewhat perplexed by this. He knew what she just said, yet it hadn't registered that he would be sparring with HER right now. He heard the commands and looked at her hesitantly, though it wasn't at doubting her strength. Actually he was presently more concerned about the rating he was getting from her. His battle systems were reading her as an unknown and with the little display she showed? Rank A+ for danger.

"You might want to release your spear, Kageo. I'm not intending to hold back on you, short of beating you badly that is. You'll heal." the way she said this and grinned after unnerved her underling a bit. She was amused by that fact.

She wasn't going to hurt him that badly, but she did need the exercise and would be extracting the data from this later. It was a nice opportunity for her and she so rarely went this far. This was probably the first active spar she'd attended to in a really long time. As she felt the pressure around Kageo building and the words of his spear's release being spoken, she grinned at that and popped her neck. Now she could have taken him on without weapons, but where was the fun in that?

"Kagennotsuki!" Kageo felt a familiar buzz from his systematic warning about the danger he was in.

The cerulean aura surged around him in the fashion of water. Swirling up and around his body as he pointed the yari-great spear at her, he straightened up. She told him not to disappoint her, he would do his best. Clearly her strength was above his and so had her skill been. She hid it all too well, as though he knew she could fight; the fact that she was leagues beyond him was the surprise.

"Good man, Kageo. If you hesitate, you'll just get hurt and I'll be pissed at you. You don't want that." Kokonoe saying this with a grin as she loosened up her form.

The practiced battle form melting away into a visage of a casual manner. She was going to enjoy this, the perfect chance to kill many birds with one stone. As she started walking towards him, she gave nothing away of her plan. Watching him stand ready, her movement melted into action as she summoned her metal gauntlets and the pair of rocket charged fists that were mounted upon them.

She struck with a left punch towards Kageo's ribs, finding that he blocked the impact with his spear's shaft and forced him back in his tracks. This just before engaging him with her right fist; which moved towards his shoulder. Feeling impact from the blow, she watched him fall backwards and let off a kick. She blocked the falling kick with her forearm and stepped back. From the floor, Kageo thrust the spear towards her chest and she felt the impact force her back a few more steps.

"Heh, not bad, Kageo. Show me more." her calm sounding tone was still so unnerving to Kageo and she could tell.

Rolling up to his feet, the Kaka attacked first and thrust his spear towards Kokonoe. While she saw the attack come forward, she blocked the thrust with her large boost knuckle. As she moved the attack to her left, the same knuckle was dragging along the inside of the spear before the spear was whipped back against her guarding knuckle. It had been enough to make her step inward to hold herself up. She could feel Kageo's strength through the spear and found it to her liking.

As she pushed the spear off of her boost knuckle gauntlets, she threw her hands up and gauntlets would fade into zero space, before she grabbed the handle of something and brought it down towards Kageo. The kaka had just enough time to raise his spear and guard against the attacking mallet with a drill point. The look on Kokonoe's face was still at ease, casual and almost too calm. This relayed nothing of her next attack or the strain she was or wasn't experiencing forcing the mallet on Kageo.

"Rrgh...!" Kageo grunted as he reached into the pits of his strength and shoved her mallet back from his spear.

All of the effort almost seemed moot, as Kageo rose to his feet; he'd raise his spear up just in time to block the mallet again. Kokonoe had the rocket at the other end of the mallet activate to launch it back in Kageo's direction horizontally. And though he'd caught the blow, he was sent flying backwards off of his feet.

"W-Whoa!" the pressure was intense, she had a rocket in the head of that thing? He'd spread his legs out and let the wind catch his Kaka hoodie on the way down, while the coat lifted briefly and revealed his short pants, they served to break his knockback. He landed and darted towards her, moving in to meet Kokonoe halfway in a clash.

"Better try harder, Kageo. Looks like this will be wrapped up soon." Kokonoe was speaking from simple facts.

The clash broke as Kageo's rich caeroule aura burned around him. She could see that he upped his output to 100% and rushed to meet her again. The pair clashed again and traded in several passes. Kokonoe was looking better, far less strain remaining in her by the next pass. She switched weapons a few times during the clashes: to an ice freezing gun, two compact mini-guns, and a few other small ones that came to mind.

"Ha, you're pretty good with that spear, Kageo. But I'm fitting to end this, therapeutic as its been; you're going to show me all you've got now. Use the seithr overlord mode, since it'll be your only hope of so much as scratching me." the words were all matter-of-fact, as Kageo had grazed her only a few times; he had not given her any solid blows.

She stood there, gesturing for him to unleash it here. Her ears perked as she felt them pop, the aura around Kageo changed from cerulean to red outlined with black very suddenly. The ground shook with a tremor from the energy he drew in from the seithr he stored within him. Her hair whipped up in the small shockwave released from his body by the shift. As she switched to the boosting drill mallet, she charged to meet him and saw him become a red/black blur.

It was the first time that he'd managed to hit her and give her a wound: a single red streak lined her ribs after the pass, and the bite of pain was only minor. Ignoring it, she placed the mallet over her shoulder and looked to Kageo. She could see he was covered in scuff marks, blast marks, and a number of wounds from all of the passes. She found him still standing and that made her grin a bit. Naturally taking out some frustration left someone hurt, in this case Kageo wasn't in that bad shape.

"Not bad, Kageo. You're in one piece despite me being rough with you. Way to hang in there, the battle data will be exquisite." she'd say this while looking up to the room and letting the mallet fade from her hand and back into zero space.

"Thanks *cough*, Kokonoe." he huffed and leaned against his spear, as it shut down on its own.

With him being worn out as he was, it would make sure not to give him anymore undo stress. He stood up and Kokonoe moved towards the exit of the Hologram room. She was fine with leaving Kageo to take care of himself, as his still standing meant that she held back a good amount of strength. She would have to keep this in mind, to see if he got better than he was even now. Though she spoke up on the way out, to ensure there were no records of the battle.

"Erase procedure C on Holo-training one." as she said this, the computer voice acknowledge this and went into the process.

"Thank you for the honor of sparring with you, Kokonoe. It is like nothing I imagined, honestly." he admitted the obvious and was genuinely grateful.

The way he said it was like he thought it might only happen once. Now that she had a good means of ridding herself of stress at the expense of her underling, she would be doing this again!

"Oh don't thank me, Kageo. You sure won't be when we spar again, I am aware of this being really good for ridding myself of stress." Koko grinned gently at this as she stepped out of the room.

There she left Kageo's face half agape, she was going to do this again? He was already going to be sore, boy...this meant that he had to train harder. It was at least a good motivator, he didn't want to be so badly beaten again. He couldn't match her, but perhaps he could narrow the gap. Once the kaka split his spear's magnetic bond and placed the segments away, he shut the room down. Leaving the training area, he went off to patch himself up and then get to sleep.

-Back in Kokonoe's Lab-

Kokonoe sat down and was addressing her terminal, both to give out orders for Tager, Makoto, Kagina, and Kageo for the next few days. She felt a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders and all she had to do was beat up Kageo. That tickled her to no end, it amused her greatly that he would continue to serve as a punching bag. She was proud of his enhancements, he was certainly a healthy punching bag if any. Knowing how sloppy she actually was with hand to hand, she decided that would be next.

A purely hand to hand trade of blows with Kageo might help her shape up. As she settled in for her long night all she could do was grin a little bit. Despite the absolute shitty day that she'd had, at least there was a means of keeping her somewhat positive. Another use for her multi-purpose agent, between that and the fact he was holding back so many things. She'd explore every strength and flaw of his in combat through future spars.

Maybe the time ahead would be just as amusing.

(End Chapter)

We have the end of Chapter 2, naturally I can't spend too much time on the major events that many of us fans know by now. Though giving them a show, this is more of a focus on Kokonoe's mind and how she'll be tolerating things: through her eyes and Kageo's mostly. We will see interactions with Tager and other people in Sector Seven and out of. But Chrono Phantasma is some time away, I intend to focus on the time in between to give reads a more in-depth look about Koko's struggles mentally throughout planning periods and things like that.

As a woman of means, she can scarcely take the time to hesitate, we'll discover what she does to manage it!

Till the next time adieu

-Quentix


	4. Chap: Theory of interpersonal Relations

A/N: In such a short time the next chapter is already in the works. We get a brilliant outcome, following the previous chapter things grow more interesting. We have the upcoming chapter and more introspection from our favorite S7 Professor of Science!

Let's see how it unfolds, on with the chapter.

(End A/N)

Chapter III: Theory of interpersonal relations

How many days had it been this time? Kokonoe found herself both unsure and uncaring of that. She had been going out of her way in late to lay another play out. One hatched between her and the "Black Knight" of the Mutsuki Duodecim family. He was a brilliant man, had a vision and a good reason to stage the coup against the Librarium's present Imperator. Still he was an infuriating flirt and it was annoying to her.

The idiot tried calling this plan 'their baby' and how he wanted to 'lay down the important bonds between them first'. She offered a physical modification that she'd then charge him for. It was the only warning that she planned to give him, next thing he'd find himself on the operating table. Kokonoe was never one to allow herself to be open emotionally to anyone. Aside from a few accidental bonds forged with her underlings, there was about nothing.

Minor curiosities lined her plans, but other than that the phase was going smoothly enough. She'd been having to think really clever in order to keep her two twin underlings from running into one another. Honestly it was one of those things that just made her sigh, it was as if they'd been her own children. With one oblivious, but curious and the second desperate to make first contact: one could see the thrill of the game the Professor played. It was maddening, but at once providing her with some amusement. This was akin to playing with matches and it was getting more wild as she neared the last matches.

 _'It's only a matter of time I suppose, they'll find each other...Kagina's been good for the past week. But she's done waiting, I know that eagerness of hers.'_

The thought whispering away in Kokonoe's mind while she typed furiously on the computer. There was going to be hell to pay, she imagined. Kageo had been a great sparring partner, even though his sparring with her got him beaten up. Still he was there to vent her frustrations out on and she was grateful. He could've refused after the first time, but he saw it as a means of something to improve his skill against.

Kagina was analyzing her brother's data every chance she got. She'd given her the figures that she asked for, and every other little task that she cooked up quicker than expected. The Lab kaka was on a mission now, it was to see her brother in the lab or cleaning up. She knew that he was here with her, and unaware. That not knowing is what drove her to let it be an 'accident' that the pair ran into each other.

It was all an interesting little matter to run down. She felt that things had gone against her since the failure of Lambda to destroy Terumi. She had been insulted by her enemy and that was where she began to realize something was wrong. The thing was that she wished she had seen it sooner, the correlation of her hatred and Terumi's strength. That was where he drew his strength from: hatred involving him.

Terumi was always best at home when he was in a fight. With Ragna the Bloodedge beating him and then forcing him to suffer, he seemed to be weakened. She'd had this data for weeks now and didn't notice any of this sooner. He was a cruel bastard and that was how he got his fuel, now that she saw it; it was elementary to her. She had fitted Kagina with weapons that might be effective against him.

"That...just may work." she was running over a few things in her mind that might work.

As she was already working on an upgrade for Kageo, this made her feel enlightened for the better. She could double his efficiency, make him as strong as his sister, and give him new weapons all in one smooth rush. It was yet another thing that she was doing all at once. Perhaps there was a better way to balance all this out, but she didn't have access to it. Simply put she made due with what she had, no matter how crummy or few resources.

It was still a happy discovery, since she had plans to adjust her underlings weaponry and was busy now. She took the schematics for Kagina's chief weapon and focused on remaking the design for Kageo's design as well. Certainly a thing manageable in her hands. For the first time in the past week, she was grinning brightly and already underway, redesigning her weapon of choice for Kageo.

-In the Holo training area-

Watching the data as it actively came up, Kagina held a notepad out and was seated upon the floor. Her lab coat pooled around her as she ran her fingers through some loose locks of hair in her face. Looking up eagerly, she was waiting to see him come out. Finally the Professor was busy and she had the time to be here. She'd earned her right to run into her brother for the first time finally, there was nothing more that she wanted more.

Though she had come here for data collection, she'd decided that it would be best to take the risk. of the time and what she'd learned from reading her brother's data, he wasn't the kind to over react. She estimated a low odd of under .01% that her twin would react badly to her at all. In fact, she was almost sure with the odds that he'd respond with understanding and might even welcome her.

"He's so fast and training harder than ever. Oh please come out soon..." Kagina knew that she was afraid, but oh so excited.

The prospect of meeting one's origins essentially, her twin brother. The older of the pair who had lived a whole lot longer than she had. Compared to his life, her own was but a flicker or blink of an eye by comparison. There was so much she wanted to do with him, then to stand at his side in all he did. She wanted the chance to be a doting little sister.

The program ended and the doors hissed open. Kageo emerged looking refreshed, with a towel around his neck, he'd looked like he completed his training. This was exactly what she was in awe of, the dedication and the first actual sight of her smaller twin. Kagina slowly got to her feet, standing on wobbly knees. He was standing in front of her and she didn't know how to respond to it.

"Who are you..?" Kageo's question came, sound and completely lucid despite his being somewhat worn out from training.

"There's a lot to explain, but in short: I'm your genetic twin sister. My name is Kagina-Kaka and I am so happy to meet you, Kageo." Kagina spoke the words in a heart felt manner and then held her breath.

She waited for either a furious snarl, a worried choke, or some kind of negative response. It was something that didn't come at all in fact. Kageo was very still and his eyes had flashed a soft blue, indicating the major thoughts that he was considering at high pace. Thinking a lot, but not responding just yet did leave Kagina on edge. She wanted to take him into her arms and hug him tightly.

The urge was prevalent on her face, as she kept herself from doing that yet. It was only when Kageo spoke next that her heart nearly melted.

"Well what are you waiting for? Are you going to hug me or what?" Kageo said in an all too welcoming tone.

Kagina closed the distance between them and hugged her twin brother, leaning down to bury her face in his shoulder. The warmth that flooded her was immense, nothing could compare to the wonders of holding her brother the way she did now for her. She purred and Kageo seemed to return the sentiment, also hugging her back. The pair were nuzzling one another, seeming to grow used to each other's scent. For Kageo, the oddest part was how welcome he found her to be, it was hard to believe that he embraced her so quickly.

He did not know her, but due to her familiar scent he didn't question his welcoming her. He already felt close to someone he knew nothing about. Willing to put trust in her, he drew back slowly and looked up at her, noticing that she was around 5 inches taller than him. It was kind of funny, but he imagined that Kokonoe had felt the height would do her better. He had a lot that he wanted to ask her, but he started just simple.

"Are you superior to my present status?" Kageo asked a simple inquiry, it was one that she gave a soft nod to.

"I am functionally superior in numbers anyway. I don't believe I'd handle things better than you." Kagina hoped to show her support of her brother with this statement.

"Ha...you're sweet, thank you Kagina." Kageo did appreciate that, but he also was sure that Kokonoe had done what she does best.

Chances were that Kagina was superior to him where it counted. It was just the way that she worked, in truth he wasn't surprised and seemed to be glad for it. Just that this answered his suspicions from earlier and in a way amused him. He rubbed his sister's side and hugged into her again. This caused her to smile gently and return the hug.

"So...do you have any questions for me?" Kagina figured that he might and was eager to answer him.

"No, I actually don't. I'm just glad to see you, I imagine you've been waiting a long time. With me away on mission and so busy...sorry to leave you waiting." he smiled again, just pleased with her presence.

Kageo was at a peace, which almost seemed unusual given how he should have been. There wasn't the least bit of resentment in him about Kagina, and she was grateful for it. There giving her a soft nuzzle on the top of side of her shoulder, he drew back to look at her.

"You look quite lovely, Kagina. I should expect no less from my twin." he complimented her appearance and just found himself grinning at her blush.

"O-Oh you don't have to say that. I'm nothing special, but thank you. You're the handsome one!" Kagina countered with a compliment.

This made the pair laugh, as clearly they looked nearly identical. The most obvious difference was the gender, something that neither lamented. Kageo had never had a direct sibling before, and now he was going to enjoy every minute of it. The two sat down on the bench outside the training hall and just talked. It started off small and about every little thing that Kagina did.

The two covered their differences as well: Kagina being smarter, more articulate, and a functional lab assistant. Opposite her brother, who though smart, was not designed to suit the lab's inner workings. He could figure out a lot, including the lab, but often made his own figures and steered clear of the lab. It was enough of a surprise to Kageo that Kagina was a lab assistant of all things, but it seemed she was suited to it. He certainly wasn't going to complain about his bright little sister.

"I'm happy for you, it appears as if you really found your way in life, Kagina! There's nothing more that a Kaka can ask for." Kageo seemed certain of that.

Though Kagina seemed to disagree, still at her brother's side she looked him in the eye and verbally conveyed her disagreement.

"No Kageo, we don't just want a way in life, we need family...to belong, to have love, to breathe and live as more than just a career oriented soul." Kagina wanted her brother to know that she knew better.

There was no naïve nature when it came to this particular thing. She was looking at her older brother with a bit of pity for the fact that he embraced that as his means to go through. He reminded her of Kokonoe in truth, the very reason she placed both hands on his shoulders and rubbed them. Kageo on the other hand was not concerned with her beliefs. They were that of a head strong, positive minded young woman and he appreciated that.

"There's no need for you to say anything further, I can see that you would argue it to high heaven and back. But at least with you I have family, Kagina." he smiled again, still quite proud of his younger twin.

"As if you were psychic, big brother. But you are still going to get all of the love that you've missed while here. I mean, I haven't known family, but I have you in my life and I won't let that go. No matter the consequences." Kagina sounded determined this way, almost sure that Kokonoe would punish her.

"Don't worry about it, Kagina. I'm going to talk with the Professor, we've got a spar coming up anyway. I should call it, survive the beat down, ha." Kageo chuckled a little bit.

He seemed sure that his training earlier would serve as a nice warm up. Packing some new strategies and tactics as well as a focus to try and get a single hit off on her. Giving himself realistic goals before a superior opponent would help him keep from getting depressed. The facts remained that Kokonoe was taking it easy on him as the battles were always casual and despite his efforts, she was never really straining; even if he surprised her once in a while. This had already been on his mind before his sister mentioned that Kokonoe was probably going to be pissed at her.

Kagina didn't say anything at first, before giving Kageo a hug at this point.

"Sorry brother, already giving you a headache after we've just met too. I really...don't mean to." Kagina sounded embarrassed, but at once happy that she had a blood relation, another Kaka in her life to be this close to.

"Well that's what big brothers are for right? Sheltering our younger siblings from the crap storm that's out there when its worst. It's alright, Kagina, really it is." certainly Kageo wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. She didn't actually do anything wrong, so it was fine in his eyes, just something to get through.

The two stayed together for a little longer, though eventually Kagina had to get back to the lab. She'd had data running itself in tests and after a small tearful farewell, the two promised to meet up for dinner. It would be something that Kagina invited her brother to her room for, given her standard location was roomier. Once the two had left, Kageo headed to meet up with Kokonoe. She had called him to the lab since she had a better simulation room that Tager used normally.

-With Kokonoe-

The pink haired genius was fast at work on Kageo's upgrade. It was something that she had gotten a stroke of genius for the last time they sparred, as she noticed the subtle changes in Kageo's systems. Either from the nanobots living within his A.C.S. or his own modifications to the shunting systems to conversely make a better flow to his system. All of it made for good calculation points that she'd adjust in his version of his genetic twin's systems. The numbers were so easy to read right in this moment.

It was rare for her to find a eureka moment as she had just now, this was a wonderful time for her. The first good spot in weeks that she'd found herself in, given everything else was a failed blunder. There was nothing that she preferred more than crunching numbers. For the simplicity of just doing math and running numbers which did not lie, there was nothing more mind numbing she found. A place where she could see success on the horizon, as the only thing she'd need to do would be to test the upgrade before installation.

 _'Yeah...I'll be damned if this thing doesn't short him out. It shouldn't, given his systems' numbers and how Kagina handles it. Such a thing should make him work far better than he does now.'_

The numbers were there from success, there was no way she could get this wrong. It was textbook improvements upon a system and then dragging that older system up to the ranks of a proven grade. In truth, the only reason why she had her doubts was due to her plans falling apart. She knew that it couldn't be helped and logically she moved onto her next goals, but doubts still remained. Parts of her would whisper the venomous Iago-type speech into her ear, meant to bring more doubts to her mind.

This was something that she would not allow in any form. Nothing to plague her mind when she needed it free, her mind was focused on the simplistic degree of math. Nothing but the imaginary realm of numbers and applying it in advanced methods to help the mind relax. Parts of her mind drifted to other topics while she was going over the figures. Even the incessant sound of all the typing fell shy of actually bothering her anymore.

It was all white noise to her in truth, her mind's loitering thoughts prevailed and she heard annoying murmurs.

 _'Bet that Kagina finally saw her brother, he's probably on his way here now or something. She couldn't stay away no matter how I tell her, god she was a pain in the ass to make.'_

Of course part of Kokonoe knew that her lab assistant wasn't at work, it was a lab algorithm she wrote. It was number crunching too consistently and slower overall than Kagina. She knew her assistant and how she worked. Like a kaka she was not very consistent, but she was fast and at times her impulsive nature saw her get things done far faster. Her little assistant was both effective and also ineffective at the same time.

 _'Effective at work and doing what she's told, but damned impossible to keep on track if she discovers something. I guess you can't create something perfect either, hell...it'd be too boring.'_

Some small part of Kokonoe enjoyed the fact that she found some successes in her least combat effective unit and the follow up on that. Kageo had been the source of much success, despite his lack of overall power. He wasn't strong enough to match Tager, not even close in fact. He was however a great combination of speed, stealth, and free thinking that made him good for espionage and information gathering. It was sure as hell a tribute to her ability, creating a kaka that was more useful than most of the populace and loyal enough that she didn't doubt his devotion to her.

 _'That devotion thing again, eh...what does he get out of it? Kageo doesn't owe much to me, in terms of his existence. He's autonomous, completely functional with limited updates that happen automatically. Maintenance is to a minimum...so why does he have it? Loyalty has a cost, a reason that usual stands.'_

Part of her mind was still trying to consider what Kageo's reasoning was: mentally or otherwise that decided for him. He was as always a very sporadic sort despite his constant and readable nature. There was nothing about him that she truly didn't know, having created him from near scratch. Still none of the extra details mattered, as knowing everything about him and all that went on in his mind, didn't give her the answer she wanted. Murmuring something, as she was annoyed by her questioning mind again, she moved onto another thought.

At least until she heard the doors to the lab open up, from the steps it sounded like Kageo. He seemed calm enough, all of this determined by her ears as she typed away endlessly. His heartbeat sounded calm, breathing, and steps were anything but frantic: he was serene. That was a little unnerving if her predictions were correct. Not that she expected Kageo to fly off the handle or anything, but he didn't even seem nervous.

"Hey Professor, are you ready for the spar? I've come packing a few new tricks today." the kaka sounded normal enough, but also held something back. Certainly he was going to ask her, but didn't want to do this outright.

"Of course, you'd better be ready to give me some new competition, Kageo. I'm getting bored just smacking you around honestly, though its great for removing irritation. I need to keep my skills sharp, so try to keep up will ya?" Kokonoe was surprised, but wouldn't approach the topic unless he did. She could tell that he had 'something' to talk about and wasn't talking about it yet.

Though with the two in agreement over the spar, she got up and gestured for Kageo to follow. Instead of heading back into hall, towards the primary holo-training area, she brought him back towards a large set of side doors. Kageo did recognize this area, only since he'd seen Tager go into and out of these large doors. It was a personal training hall designed to take greater damage. At least this is what Kageo guessed it to be, as he followed the Professor inside.

"I figured we should play in an arena that can take more damage, so you don't hold back your maximum." she'd say this as a matter-of-fact statement.

Kageo stopped himself from asking 'how did you?', he knew better than to ask. She knew everything, certainly she'd be able to gauge how much power he was putting out. He didn't even bother trying to deny that he hadn't been given his all. Quite frankly, he wasn't sure that it would be worth burning out.

"I can imagine your thought process: 'It's pointless when I'm outmatched' or 'I can't match her strength even at max, I'll just go near max.', right? Well That's not what I asked for these past four spars was it? I said your absolute best, that means going into the red, Kageo! I know your limits and what we've been doing isn't even close, you can take a lot more lumps and dish out more. So give it your all or I'll break you in two." Kokonoe's flat statement was followed by a smirk.

It was already a fact that she outmatched him, but a promise of serious pain concerned him. She was scary when like this, so he had no real option here but to give it his all. Once Kageo drew his spear and connected both the elongated sections and forged the yari-spear together with the magnetic center that fused them as one piece. With an expertise that only came from use with the spear, Kageo began to whip the spear around him rapidly. Rapidly twisting it around his body: effortlessly around his neck, over his shoulder, down his back and past his waist before pointing the tip at her.

Kokonoe could see there was a fine change in how he stood. Her threat seemed to do it and it set him about being ready for her more serious match with him today. She did want to see what came of his best efforts. It might at least give her an idea about how far she'd be able to buff his new upgrade. This test was mostly to see what he was capable of when really pushed.

"Though before we get to it, I was hoping you could answer me a pretty simple question." Kageo asked this out of the blue, not too upset about stalling their match.

"What's the question?" she imagined that it was coming, though the timing was annoying. She knew he was using it to stall for time, despite the fact that she expected it.

"It's just about Kagina, we've finally met and I'm honestly glad for the baby sister. Though she is taller than me." Kageo would say this with a small laugh.

"Figured you two would meet up, so what about her?" the poker face that Kokonoe held never broke. She was more curious, since he was still so calm and relaxed about this.

"Just a simple one really: is she replacing me in the field? From our discussions I get that she is superior to me in every which way. But I was curious as to why you didn't replace me sooner." Kageo felt these questions were simple enough.

Though the look that crossed Kokonoe's face was one of an irate feline. Her lip curled up in response as she responded to the absurd question and following statements.

"Just what do you take me for Kageo? You make it sound like I just trash older projects or subordinates because someone better comes along. You know better than that, I don't forget older subordinates, I just upgrade the hell out of them, make them better than the 'next best thing'. That's how I work MY science, ha!" Kokonoe's expressions had crossed into the edge of something worrying.

Kageo knew that she meant everything that she said, all the more that he might actually be foolish enough to have doubted that. Well with the concern out of the way, he let off a small smile and nodded to her words.

"Heh, silly concern I guess! Well that's it, I really didn't have anything else to ask about." Kageo honestly hadn't, he was done at that question due to her expanded answer.

That made her blink, he didn't have any other questions? Nothing as to why she made her or how much better? Even if they discussed it, there were things that even Kagina didn't know about herself. Little dark secrets that about anyone else that she knew would at least ask, but he took stance and seemed ready for combat.

"No more questions for me, eh Kageo?"

"Not at all, Kokonoe. You've been more than kind with your answer."

"You are one strange Kaka, Kageo." Kokonoe shrugged and popped her neck as she started towards him, a casual stride. Once near enough to him, she activated the program with a single key press on a holo-computer keyboard.

Koko struck first, moving forward in a quick step and throwing the first punch. Kageo had learned the hard way that he could not meet her strength, he twisted his torso to the side and felt the blow strike past his chest. Pushing his torso forward, he'd shoved her arm away from him and tried for a quick waist kick using his right leg. Kokonoe hopped over the kick and jump kicked Kageo in the ribs. The blow toppling him, even though he'd been braced for it.

While staggering back, Kageo thrust the spear at Kokonoe's hip. Though he saw her kick it away, he redirected it towards her side in an adjacent, overhead slash from his left. Kokonoe again blocked the spear, this time with her gauntlet covered hand. She had summoned both rocket fist gauntlets in response to his spear's use. Batting the diamond shaped spear from her, Koko moved back in to attack.

The kaka for all that it seemed worth, was capable of doing more with each battle. If not by much, he did manage to strike a note with his technique. Kokonoe had to say that it was some of the best spear work she'd seen, given that there weren't a bunch of known spearmen in the modern age. Still it was child's play. She continued parrying the skilled strikes was easily do so far, she'd sensed that it was still sealed up to now.

"Darkness part with the Waning moon, Kagennotsuki!" the release command was never constant for Kageo's spear. If anything, as long he spoke the name of his spear and announced such with determination: it would meet his desire and ignite.

While witnessing the close range release of the caeroule-energized spear, she noticed Kageo's immediate thrust at her. She'd brought both gauntlets up and blocked the shot. It didn't move her, but she felt the thrust and trusted her instinct. He was using the energy in more annoying ways today, good...that meant she could have some fun. As Kokonoe launched forward, avoiding a spear thrust by sliding under it, when she was close enough to hit Kageo; her fist went towards his chest.

The kaka showed a bit of skill, as he jumped into something of an adjacent aerial towards Kokonoe's right; leaping above the punch while throwing the end of his spear over Kokonoe's neckline without directly any pressure against her at all. As Kageo landed, he grabbed the tip of the spear and applied some pressure to it, attempting to whip the shaft into Kokonoe's neck. She felt the tremor moving through the spear and pulled her head back gracefully, avoiding the clever strike. Such as it was, the new gimmicks were flashy of Kageo's, but also had some merit since she almost got hit with that one.

Kageo whipped the spear point in a wide horizontal arc and then brought it over his back, while leaning forward he pushed the three pointed spear head towards the Professor. She'd punched the spear away and charged in again, raising a hand and blocking the spear from cutting her off.

"I believe I said you'll need FULL power, didn't I?" Kokonoe was making a point, simply that all the skill in the world wouldn't protect him from raw power.

The pressure was all too familiar to Kageo, as his 80% had been better than what he used before, but that was a moot point. Kageo's cerulean colored aura flared to life and in a thickened haze, showed the sudden activation of his full force. Koko smiled at this genuinely, as this was what she asked for. The improved skills were nice, but now they might actually pack some punch now. While Kokonoe parried a set of rapid thrusts, she decided to switch weapons.

While leaping backwards, Kokonoe switched to her large booster drill hammer and drew it from the summon space. With it in hand, she began something of a fierce offensive against Kageo. The first swing sent a loud echo throughout the digital landscape: that of a ragged set of buildings with a large open space. It was a compound and despite the appearance of it, Kageo took the direct approach today. As he met up with Kokonoe, he was continually outmatched.

Despite the state of things, he was enjoying the chance to really go all out. He'd considered if the high he was experiencing came from using it all? Though he hadn't really noticed how much time had passed. All he really felt was how many strikes were hitting him, and found they were relentless. Despite them only being grazes in most cases, they hurt a whole lot.

He had one more ace up his sleeve, the risks that he could take might prove worthy.

"Go ahead, Kageo. I know you likely want to give your all. Finally ready to show me everything you actually have? Then make it a good show, one last pass. Since you can't take much more and keep standing." it was a simple call of his physical condition.

She had been pummeling him and while sturdy, he was far from Tager sturdy. It didn't take her long to realize that the intense, but relatively short exchange was going to end. Kageo's aura changed colors: from cerulean to an indigo aura with a blackened outline. She recognized the feeling of seithr in the air, it excited her a little since it was intense. She commented as much on what it was that she felt.

"So what do you call your seithr boost mode, Kageo? I have a feeling you gave it a name." she identified it as 'seithr boost', but it was his choice to call it whatever else.

"Seithr overlord, is what I've named it. But this isn't quite that...a bit more dangerous, more your flavor I think." Kageo sounded pretty sure.

She could see that it wasn't, as seithr usually had some black/red manifestation. Certainly she felt that this might be worth a bit more effort. She was fine with getting involved with the clash. Kokonoe was never much of a fighter, but that be damned if she didn't enjoy some moments of tension. This amount of power was beyond his scale, but she gestured with her left hand to him.

"Bring it on, Kageo." as Kokonoe said this, she broke into a dash.

While running at him, she'd brought the hammer up in a rising swing, a wide arcing motion that was her pure momentum. It was something met by Kageo's downward swing, which he used to counter the force. From his angle, the pressure in the air around him was rough, crackling with the combined energy of both the Indigo haze pressure; which had been stabilized somewhat by the seithr's presence. Even though the combined force was providing immense pressure to Kageo's body, pushing his physical limits while it was engaged. This was a fine stress test and Kageo seemed to be psyched despite the pain that he started to feel.

The clash felt off balance at first, a small pang of silence following the absurdly loud clash. Though once the pocket of silence cleared, there was a rapid pressure that thrummed off of the two. It was a match of Kageo's unified power against Kokonoe's raw strength. Kageo felt some leverage and pushed against it, finding that he gained some headway. To Koko's surprise, it was that he had been using some serious muscle.

"More...than I calculated Kageo, but only enough to earn you this!" Kokonoe let off a wide grin as she used the booster on the hammer to break Kageo's momentum an while letting go of her hammer, her body began to turn as she summoned something beyond Kageo's sight.

As he flipped up and backwards, catching himself from all the momentum. Though all he did manage to witness was two large electro zappers in Kokonoe's hands, and a very maniacal look on her face. It played out in slow motion as he landed, that Kokonoe pressed both of the high voltage conductors into his ribs. First he felt intense pain, then nothing as he blacked out on the spot. Once the counter had been done, the pink haired professor laughed a little and rubbed behind her head.

"Maybe I over did it?" though to this end, she shrugged and walked over to her minion and scooped him up, holding him tucked under one arm and taking up his spear in the same hand.

-Several hours later-

Kageo awakened in a lab bed tucked under a white sheet, which rested around his collar area. Once he stirred, his body rebelled by reminding him of the pain he'd endured. This alone did make him cease movement, as did a voice from the side of his bed.

"Brother, you're awake! Thank goodness, I was worried." Kagina said as she hopped up from her seat and came to his side.

"I'm fine...just a little numb and stiff. I've been in worse condition, honestly." Kageo hoped to reassure her, though the pain was more than he let on.

"Well the Professor has a few things to discuss with you, she was just taking care of something. But while she's gone, I felt I'd give you a heads up~!" Kagina was in a chipper mood, given how the day had gone.

"Thank you for that, Kagina." Kageo did appreciate the gain in foresight on a subject that he'd be discussing, so he just settled back down. He didn't need to get up in a rush anytime soon.

"Also, tomorrow we'll be sparring together. The Professor thinks that together we can give her a decent workout. Not just stress relief, as she calls the 'spars' if they can be called that." Kagina huffed lightly, clearly bugged by the one-sided beat down that the matches with the Professor played out to be.

"Alright, I'm a bit eager to see how you fight." her elder twin seemed pleased with the chance.

"Eh heh, not as good as you, but I think I do alright." Kagina seemed to be modest, but eager as well to show off what she was capable of.

As the two finished the exchange, the door slid open and the Professor walked in with a cup of coffee.

"Alright, glad you're awake Kageo. Kagina, you have some numbers to crunch, shoo." Kokonoe's casual comment sent Kagina off with a small smile.

As Kageo's twin shuffled out of the room, the door closed and Kokonoe sat across from the bed. Once seated with her average cup of coffee, she got started on the first of their topics.

"Alright, Kageo. We're going to discuss a few things that I've got lined up: first is about your upgrade that's coming." the professor unveiled the first target and it surprised her agent a little bit.

"An upgrade? Alright, what should I know about it?" He figured that was why she'd bring it up, since he had no foreknowledge of it directly.

"Well I'll fill you in on what's planned, then you can tell me any requests. You know how you fight, and while normally I don't give a rat's ass about your thoughts, I'm feeling generous." the pink haired feline offered him a gracious offer and a blunt fact.

"Alright, please share and I will mention any requests that come to mind." Kageo was curious genuinely about what she had in mind for an upgrade.

The conversation began pretty quickly, mostly with Kokonoe explaining her grand plans for Kageo. She was going to upgrade him with an additional core inside of his body, a relatively painless operation to execute as he'd be under while it happened. She'd be giving him a secondary Master Artifice Core to better regulate his power, absorption of things, and enhancing the base of his general strength amongst things. He seemed to be quite happy to take this and in transition, hearing that his original core would be removed from the spear and put into him. She had plans to place a regulatory duality core inside of the spear to keep it central to his body's functions, though minimally by comparison.

There were mentions of a secondary weapon set that he'd be getting, a pair of tachi blades to match his sister's set. Though she seemed vague as she was still working on its functions. Ultimately there were a lot of positive gains from her giving him a maintenance on his old cores and upgrading them each. A general screening of his body to make sure nothing else needed improving while she worked. The Professor had no plans to leave any one thing unturned when dealing with Kageo.

Such as it was, the conversation went smoothly and as Koko covered various angles with Kageo, he'd agreed with them and shared why. It was a surprisingly engaging conversation that amused her. Once again the conversation was coming to an end and she'd been ready to move on. She made sure to present as much to him, since she hated to waste time.

"Well, you seem pretty agreeable about the whole thing. So unless you have anything else to add, I'm moving on." Kokonoe's statement went unopposed as Kageo shook his head no, on having anything to add.

With that approval, she moved onto the second topic. It wasn't a very surprising one to head into.

"I want to know why you had no more questions for me today, Kageo. You did just find out you've a twin and you accept it without blinking or losing stride. You holding back on me or something? A little outrage would be normal." the Professor was calm and honestly expected that he would be holding out on something.

He gave her a soft shrug and gently smiled at that, answering in a way that was simply truth for him.

"Sorry, Professor. There's just no outrage to be had, as your actions are logical to me. As the result of an experiment born from similar thoughts, it'd be illogical to speak on part against a decision." Kageo said in turn.

It sounded fitting for a mindless creature of logic or maybe even Tager if he were here. Even though he'd put some spirit into it, this made Kokonoe's brows furrow in annoyance as she looked at him skeptically.

"For logic, perhaps, Kageo. But you're a Kaka, its not the first to logic, nor is someone of your caliber. I can't take that statement seriously, any way you slice it. You're gonna have to do better than that." Koko wasn't going to be hearing that as a reason.

The professor continued and added onto the question in fact, "This is for my curiosity Kageo, so you also better explain why you seem...so content following orders." that part really had her, she couldn't hide the grin on her face, as she imagined there was some kind of juicy tidbit he'd share.

"I promise there's nothing to hold back, and as far as explaining it all, one word really does well for it. I'm just comfortable with following your orders, it pleases me to see you pleased with my actions. I understand that might seem strange, but in adapting to my position, I realized that I wanted to do the job more with time." Kageo's honestly answer wasn't what Kokonoe expected.

For a moment she considered what she'd just heard and realized that it was plausible. Kaka were relatively simple in some ways of being content and though Kageo might be a little odd, it was not out of the norm entirely. Still it was strange that he'd be content, at least to her. There were times that her orders were questioned by Tager, even though that was rare, and his loyalty was unquestionable. It was a drastic difference with this Kaka and that had her a little stumped.

"That's an odd answer, Kageo, not gonna kid ya. But whatever floats your boat I guess." she shrugged that off and moved onto another question.

Kageo watched Kokonoe as she thought, he noticed that she was looking upon him intently for anything. His face was passive, if not mildly amused with the usual kaka grin present. He wondered just how he was even remotely surprising given his nature. In truth the kaka didn't really betray anything as far as expressions were concerned. Between that and the fact that he wore most of his feelings on his sleeve and it made him most unremarkable.

"That's real cute Kageo, you look so unassuming, if I didn't know what I made you for; it might work. Anyway, my question next for you is: why are you not concerned about your missions? I've given you a few scrappy ones, they are dangerous. You don't complain, just do and to a point that it's irksome. I don't mind complaints you know, even though you're still doing the damned mission; at least it let's me know you are concerned." Kokonoe again took a question approaching one of his more ambiguous traits.

The modified kaka did consider how best to respond to this one. Since it was straight forward, the answer wasn't hard, but he wanted to give an answer that Kokonoe would accept without prodding him more. It was kind of funny to him as this was the only time she'd ever really taken interest in knowing anything personal about him.

"I trust the job was dangerous when you gave it, Professor. You need me to be ready, when and where are not a factor for me. Whether I'm frightened, anxious, concerned or otherwise; I'm still doing the job. I trust in the fact that you've already considered the factors of a mission, you leave me there parameters and then its my turn to do my part. Besides, complaining makes me look less cool." Kageo was joking somewhat on the end, but the rest had been clear as day: what he felt on the situation.

Yeah his answers were a little unusual, but this was nothing for her to focus on. He was certainly an eccentric Kaka, this more confirmed for her now than ever. She shook her head and stood up, giving him a small smirk.

"Well you've managed to amuse me, yet again. Just keep getting better and the sooner you start training with your sister, the better. You two need to be in some shape for sparring with me, after your upgrade you know." the pink haired scientist was done with her amusing aside, it was time to get back to work.

With a light nod, Kageo settled down into bed and seemed to be more and prepared himself to get some real sleep. Between rest and his repair systems active, he figured that he'd be up and at'em in some hours. He needed to prepare himself for the worst, since Kokonoe's playing around did this to him. While rest came easy, the thoughts of being a constant beat bag for the Professor did leave him wishing for a mission. She hit harder than Tager when he'd trained with him, that was simply the way of it.

-Back at the Lab-

Several hours after seeing Kageo in the recovery room, Kokonoe had been weighing an option for herself. There were lots of things causing her stress as the days and weeks trailed on, it only grew to distract her. When this close to considering her most unnecessary part of the stress, she'd settled on a single subject: emotion. Her emotions had been causing every bit of her troubles. With her fist balling up briefly as she slid back from her chair, she huffed.

"Not like I have a need for them anyway." the pink eared scientist grumbled and then got out of her seat.

Heading to the lab towards one of her less used areas, looking over the device a moment to reminisce about its conception. It didn't last long, since she wasn't here for a memory trip, so as she drew the probes up to the sides of her temples; the process was soon set up. It didn't take long, just a little maneuvering in order to get the machine primed for its use. She'd decided that she wouldn't have any second thoughts on the matter. After all, the device worked in reverse, if she ever found a need for the source of her troubles in late.

 _'Tch, its for the best anyway. Just going to keep my mind clear and be the machine that I need to get this done.'_

Some part of her felt that this might not help, but that was something she ignored. Some small minded sense of concern bloomed inside of her as she felt her emotions just numb away. They cleared out up to 98% of the emotional feeling process by inhibiting the synapses of the brain responsible for their trigger.

 _'Better already, I can feel the tension clearing up.'_

The second thought in her mind was much better than the first. She turned back to her work and immediately headed back to her terminal. It would not take her very long for the typing to have started. Though even with the loss of her emotions, her mind's lingering on the future's problems really didn't leave. They just had more clarity now and the real issue she'd have with making this work out. She had to balance a lot to make this plan work, with capable agents it was barely manageable.

That wasn't even counting their opposition...boy what a headache she was already developing. Still she had no problem with dealing with new developments. This was going to be yet another interesting time, she hoped one full of success.

(End Chapter)

Here we end Chapter III, the introspective look into Kokonoe's life shall only grow more interesting. Time marches on and her running into bigger issues will only continue. I base her sealing the emotions based upon her ending in Arcade Chronophantasma. It seems like her to go to an extreme to end her difficults, sealing one's emotions doesn't lower their effectiveness. The development of things shall proceed intrinsically on its own. Until the next chapter then.

I bid you adieu

-Quentix.


	5. Chapter: Counter-Intuitive, Part I

A/N: The fourth chapter installment is underway, quickly picking up some weeks after Kokonoe's deadening of her emotions. She takes advantage of her state of mind and takes on a boatload of things, while using her underlings in the lab to help her stay calm. Still in need of stress relief, Kokonoe continues to pummel both Kaka siblings with her desire to get an actual spar worth her time out of them both when Kageo's upgrades are complete. As Kokonoe continues to question the many things in her life, she finds that some things are troublesome and good at piquing curiosity. Let's see where this goes, as we get underway!

Terms to Know:

Master Artifice Core a.k.a. M.A.C.- refers to the major component of the Artifice Core System, it is the key that controls all other cores, regulates their energy patterns and duties within the planted body. Kageo possesses the initial success of the Artifice Core System's M.A.C., Kagina contains a refined pair inside of her, a superior version of the A.C.S. Both exist in Kageo-kaka and Kagina-Kaka in some shape.

Caeroule- the main energy value and power source of the Artifice Core System. It is generated by the cores themselves by processing many other power sources(i.e. internal body heat, blood pressure, synapse discharges, excessive body wastes, wind that blows across the skin, sunlight, energy from incoming attacks, etc.) in order to produce this weaker, but constant azure-like power source. Wielded by Kageo-Kaka and Kagina Kaka

Indigo-Haze- is the waste product of the A.C.S.'s processes, it is a more powerful, less stable variant of caeroule energy. Has been weaponized by Kageo (through ingenuity with his inferior A.C.S.) and Kagina (through the refined A.C.S. and processing from Kokonoe) for use against targets. Used in special attacks (Distortion for Kageo)

(End A/N)

Chapter IV: Counter-Intuitive, Part I

The number of weeks that passed always moved like a blur, quickly distracting with both gains and losses. The realistic displays projected by Kagura's aide, Hibiki Kohaku seemed easy to understand; albeit some dismal in her original estimates. The collaborating had gone pretty well, as they laid down several base rules of the plan; how the plan would go. It was starting to sound as if she might have some luck rolling her way. Kagura seemed pretty hopeful for the plan to work: removing the Imperator from power was a go.

The plot was still being laid out, but the foundation was ultimately done. This would allow them to maneuver, within a certain margin to increase odds. She would not see this attempt pissed away, she'd had Tager coordinating closely with Hibiki at this point, also seeing that both Makoto and Noel were busy, either with training or performing small duties for her. Her major focus had been on the smaller things now, this included Kageo's upgrade being completed. By now she had laid most of the data in, the physical work had been going well along the days also: she'd shaped the weapons and installed their regulatory duality cores to ensure the blades harmonized easily with him.

She'd already been through several beginning surgeries on Kageo, installing his M.A.C. in his body after refining it. It was the north core at work, she was laying the finishing touches on the south M.A.C. and working up the link to the weaponry. All of it had to function perfectly, since any mistakes would impact Kageo. That was another complication that needn't happen, so she continued working on it and focused on just this for now. Even with her emotions shut off, it did not stop doubts or moral annoyances that popped up in her mind.

 _'You are a real piece of work, honestly turning off your mind piece by piece won't free you from your sins.'_

The voice in her mind echoed and was not responded to. Instead, it made her focus harder on getting this subject. There was no solution for her sins, they were another necessary part of a means to an end. She'd gained them and to feel them crawling up her back would make her feel no less better or worse about what needed to be done. Kokonoe didn't own her bad karma as much as simply ignore it.

There would be a time and place for that some time, she imagined and it sure as hell wasn't now.

-In the holo-training hall-

Kageo and Kagina were once again training, for perhaps the fifth time since they'd met. It was a rather dynamic effort on the elder of the two, since in raw power he was never a match. Kagina's raw power was something impressive to see firsthand, for Kageo it was quite the experience to adapt to. He did have practical experience and that had allowed him to claim victory some times over the five. He was presently up by one, though he didn't imagine this would remain constant, for the obvious fact that Kagina asked him so many questions excitedly.

She always wanted to know how he did something or what about her move was wrong. It was a true learning experience and Kagina savored every moment of it. How could she not? Compared to her, her twin was like a legend, even if he wasn't one of the strongest agents. To her, he was still some range to strive for and she treated the nuggets of wisdom he gave her with great respect. It was near idol worship for her at times, though perhaps it was just the joy of getting her fondest wish answered; it made the whole time this far seem like a dream.

"Keep your eyes on your opponent, as attacks can come from area. Don't always trust your system readouts, they might be too slow. There's a means of finding balance, I'm not really there myself, Kagina. But I imagine when we manage to reach it, the harmony will be incredible." Kageo gave her another tip and admitted that he was still working on this one himself.

"Right, I understand that. I read the system and its accurate, but to a fault. As you have repeatedly been able to hit me with various gimmicks by extending your range." Kagina gave a quick analysis of what he said and found it to be quite true.

It was a thing for her to do, falling back on what were her mechanical senses, especially when her brother moved too fast for her to keep up at close range. This wasn't in the high top speed sense, more like his ability was extremely fluid. Her brother applied small additions of caeroule and indigo haze bursts in controlled manners that allow him to glide around her attacks. Accuracy wasn't an issue, it was a technique that he employed that made use of the old way of shunting with his spear and the cores. It created echoes of his movement and further confused her systems.

Kagina had been very humble with her skills of course, though Kageo would hear none of that. He'd complimented her on her swordplay, granted her style had been sharpened by lots of drills and training; it showed with her fighting style. She had a hard time believing that she had beaten her brother at all, but she had done so soundly on three different occasions. She was skilled both in iaido, the blade drawing form: both in single and double sword draws. It backed her finely mixed form of swordplay, which often mixed a fancy play using both swords and all of her claws.

All in all, it was a compliment to her Kaka physiology. It was exactly the way that it should be applied, she was doing this nicely so far and it would only get better as she trained. Kagina had not thought much of her applied style yet, though the training had not been in vain and that made her happy most of all.

"Kageo, what do you think I can do to improve my form?" she hoped that he might have some words of wisdom in this department for her.

"I honestly don't know yet, I haven't done much training with two swords. But I'll be doing so soon: the Professor's upgrade gives me those weapons in fact." this little fact did please Kagina.

The two would be able to train hard together. Since Kokonoe was bringing the pair closer to the same power base, it meant that she had to get better and fast. She wanted to show off a little for her twin, this was not a chance to miss. With the opportunity in her court, she'd gently patted her brother's shoulder and gave him a one armed hug before speaking up.

"Then, we shall start training in swordplay. Whatever you've had already as lessons, we can build from." Kagina was going to show him.

It would give her something to show her big brother and that was something that she appreciated the chance to do. The thought excited her, about showing her twin all of her philosophy and gimmicks with the blades.

"Alright, you've got a deal, Kagina. Soon as our next time to train comes around, we'll get right into sword practice." Kageo was game to learn from his twin, she was an expert, so there was no need not to take the offer.

With the pair yet again enjoying more time together, it was only when Kageo stood and looked at the clock that he knew it was time for the check up. Kokonoe had planned to give him a quickly mechanical resonance check to make sure that everything took well with the M.A.C. surgery she completed two days ago.

"Well its about time that I get to the lab, time to get checked out." Kageo would say with a small smile.

"Alright, brother. Try not to get taken apart in there." Kagina grinned and then hugged her brother once more, before letting him go.

The two were going to walk to the lab, as it was a good just to see him off. Kagina made sure that he made it right to the door and then drew back from his side. Reluctantly, she let him go in alone. Some part of her just wanted all of the attention that her brother had to give. But she was able to contend with the simple fact that wasn't possible. He'd established boundaries, that while she knew them to be normal; had wanted to ignore them. It was funny, in that way she'd never been so excited, but having a fella Kaka and her twin in one package deal made her all the more happy.

"Well back to the number crunching, time to get this next set of numbers out of the way." Kagina had motivation, spending time with her brother was at stake if she took too long with this set. She'd not delay and rushed off towards her terminal to work.

-In the Professor's Lab-

Kokonoe had been waiting for Kageo in the lab area, she was waiting and bored with it. Even though she saw him walk in, she was not known for her patience. Still she was going to let him get away with this nonsense, as he came in a hustle and she could tell, he was aware of her annoyance at him.

"About time you got in here, and don't tell me, as if I couldn't guess why." Koko said with a knowing tone, she knew it was Kagina.

Her assistant sure was annoying sometimes, but damn effective. As she had planned for her to be, Kokonoe was so proud to make a Kaka so capable. Still it didn't remove the factor that she was so needy. In this case, time with her twin was something that she took in abundance. Still at least it increased her productivity almost 200%, that was nothing to sneeze at, so Kokonoe let it slide.

"On the table, time for the check." she'd say this while patting the table top.

The pink tailed scientist had her plans for the check, but she'd also gotten the second done ahead of time and was going to see if he was ready to accept it. His body was one matter, the second was to have her asking him. For whatever reason, she felt like being nice and offering it to him. The chance to be as strong as his sister might be really appealing to him, of that she was sure. She'd been more accepting of this matter since Kageo had proved useful.

The fact that he so willingly gave to her had made that easier for her to give leeway. She didn't forget what the goals were here. Her kindness always had a measure, a limit that she applied unbeknownst to her minions. Yeah she liked that term, since it spoke rather perfectly to describe her two Kaka Clansmen. She was thinking too much about it, this was a simple check up and that was all.

 _'It's kinda fun to overthink this. Ironically, curiosity is still guiding me by the nose. There's no need I can't get some good test results out of this.'_

What she was referring to wasn't clear, it was a merely a vague point she made to herself. Before long, the testing was underway: she'd had Kageo disrobe and had attached probes to his chest, stomach, and to the top of his temples. His various readings were just coming in as she stared into space. This work wasn't boring, but it was making her think of some things. It was a nice little segue into her mind's depths.

Though often a place she despised visiting, in this case it had a point.

 _'Now I'm looking at my companions...boy I must be bored for attention. Seeking out cats.'_

It was kinda funny, since she generally ignored her beastkin nature, except for certain desires she loved. Involving eating, sleeping, and her ability of intense focus on one thing. Still they had not been the worst, since both were stimulating to different points in her mind. Kageo was there for his random commentary and amusing responses. Kagina was better for the science related topic, even though Kageo tried not to be a slouch there.

It really was anything to make her happy, wasn't it? That just made it all the more confusing, since it wasn't reason enough for her. She noted it about Kageo from their recent meetings, it seemed too convenient. Perhaps it was just that she didn't like that reason itself. The eager to please type wasn't accurate to rate him as, since Kageo was a juxtaposition of some archetypes of people. That was funny within itself, as she created this particular kaka, even though she didn't design his personality: there was no reason that he should be able to throw her off like this.

'Wily little cat, I'll have to make sure to check things out. Maybe quiz him or something, it's funny that I'm wasting so much time with him.'

Perhaps it was as simple as he was a male and a good companion. She chalked some of it up to the simple, biological draw of a male feline in part. But even that didn't explain her focus or draw on her silly underling. The only reason why she bothered with this little issue, was one reason: it made for a nice distraction. Her lack of interest in company of a personal nature made her immune to such things as simple desires.

Even then, Kageo never exuded the feeling of someone drawn that way to her. She'd have sensed that ages ago, he had a crush, but it never developed really. Kokonoe was well aware of his fondness for her and her mood. It was what it was, albeit still something that irked her. As she could not simply fathom someone serving for the sake of serving and to their higher ups benefit.

As the checks appeared to be all green, Kokonoe decided to drop Kageo his option and voiced it, "Alright Kageo, we're all green and you've taken well to the M.A.C. inside of you. Are you ready to receive the second M.A.C.?"

"Yes, I'm ready for the operation. I can't wait really!" Kageo was excited about it, as expected of one who wanted to improve.

This was a chance to match his sister and of course provide a better show for the Professor. Just how much had she been holding back? He had a league of questions, of which he'd be able to check some actively with the second M.A.C. present. The fluctuation of power would be strange and he had no doubt that he'd be dealing with the flak at first, but it would be worth it. He might finally be able to make use of what his sister lacked experience with.

"Ha, eager for the power aren't you? Well good, since I wanted this done sooner, you need to recover. Then I might have a bit of a challenge from you and Kagina." Koko was concerned more about her fitness, since she'd been growing soft over this time period.

A lack of training seriously would do that and stress relief was the bare minimum of what she could do. This would change that around, as between the two she might be pressured enough to both relieve stress AND get a workout. Since even Tager wasn't her match and his soft behavior in regards to her made him a lacking opponent. He'd earned his title the Red Devil and she would never be able to see why, through combat anyway. Still at least it meant that he was capable enough, that much pleased her.

 _'Okay, thinking too much about this crap again. God, what I wouldn't give for a simple mind sometimes.'_

That last part more of a jest in itself, she loved being brilliant. Since she was able to plan and execute most things of her own accord. Still there were times when being simple minded like say...Taokaka couldn't hurt. Now was just one of those times. Even though she didn't linger on that too much, she had to get ready to start the operation on Kageo. Requiring her focus, she ditched her introspective thought and focused on preparation for the operation.

-Seven hours later-

The operation on Kageo went smoothly, since his body was well used to the first M.A.C., it accepted the secondary M.A.C. with ease and his body adjusted to the power levels surprisingly well. It was going to be a matter of how fast he not only recovered, but adjusted to the power boost. It was a nice upgrade over his single M.A.C. and she was herself wondering at times, as to how well he managed with just one. Still she saw that he was already awake and that the functionality showed.

"So how do you feel, Kageo?" the first and most obvious question coming from Koko.

"Top notch, beyond a few aches that are fading." Kageo responded as his eyes sparked with a new light behind them.

He had been feeling primed, after the experience of having the second Master Core at work, his systems were all supplemented greatly. Operations were all scoring green and due to her system maintenance, there were no issues at all. Though he moved to stand, Kokonoe put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down. He almost questioned why she stopped his rising, but the reason was clear across her face.

"That's funny, you want to rip the stitching on your stomach? Stay down until I let you go." Kokonoe looked a tad annoyed, though that was probably just her resting expression.

What she wanted to do though to kill time was the question. She hadn't wanted to leave just yet, but she wasn't really thinking of much to do either. Something came within a few moments of her focus, it hit her and drew her attention.

"So Kageo, enlighten me on what keeps your focus when working for me? It's not like you're not entitled to think of other things or just being lazy." the question was pretty normal, she wanted to hear what he responded with.

"Simply put, you'd tear my hide if I was late. So I jump at the issue and get it done with right away. Better for slacking off when you have the time." Kageo spoke nothing but truth here, it was easier to work this way.

It was a good answer, she gave him that. Still all the focus on pleasing her was rather irksome. The truth was starting to make her wonder about that motivation more. Since it always led back to the same reasoning, she had come to a conclusion within the last week: that she was starting to pick up some intrigue about her foolish underling. At least enough that it was something she played along with, deciding that it was harmless and might sate her boredom. It was hard to find things that didn't stress her out and were remotely worthy of killing time on. At least Kageo proved to be that much of a useful subject of focus.

"Can I ask you something, Kokonoe?"

"What is it?"

"Why the focus on me? I've noticed the questions, not that I mind or anything."

"I wanna know, since I know everything else about you. That's all there is to it."

"Oh? Wow, didn't think I was don't interesting."

"Barely enough to sate boredom, don't let it go to your head, kiddo."

That last comment was backed by a smirk on her face. It was really true, he was an odd ball and that was what made him interesting. There was nothing more that she wanted was to understand what it was with him, just given anything else was known to the "T". Still the drive to know had its limits, Kokonoe wasn't going to waste her time on a dud; as this was strictly for her amusement. Still as Kageo lowered his head, his tail thumping against the side of the bed, she had a strange urge to pet him.

She had felt the urge before and chose often to ignore it, since it was bothersome. It was one of those things where the Kaka's cuteness annoyed her. Still, what could it hurt? She'd found no reason NOT to indulge it right now though.

"Eh...get to the edge." Koko said this, grumbling to herself.

Kageo blinked, but did as she asked and moved to the edge of the bed in order to see what she wanted. Without warning, he felt her hand gently scratching at his ear and rubbing along the top of his head. At first he was going to ask what she was doing, but he saw the look on her face which read 'don't say a word' and he didn't say a peep. Instead he shut his eyes and started responding with a soft rumble in his chest, as a rich purr built up there and he leaned into the petting more. To the Kaka's credit, he'd managed to keep the purr low and his tail swaying softly, instead of smacking the bed with his happiness.

For a few minutes of silence, Kokonoe's ears twitched gently with Kageo's purr and she found herself at ease. Just taking the time to pet and rub his ears lightly. It was as relaxing as the studies showed, it was no different for Kaka clearly. It was just another of those things that eased her mind: something that she'd keep record of. Still though she was pleased by it, this didn't mean that she appreciated how far into it she was getting.

"Ha, you really are enjoying this, aren't you Kageo?"

"Mm hmm.~"

"What's that? No smart mouthing huh? That's a surprise!"

Kokonoe was dead on for this one, Kageo had not said one smart alec statement at all during the time he was being pet. It kept him silent and just purring, which had gotten loud enough that his purrs were a nice healthy rumble in his chest. It was almost strangely cute, perhaps endearing that he was so cat-like, more than ever right now. This might be something for her to keep in mind when Kagina talked too much. She was just as annoying as her genetic twin, that was for sure.

Both of them had a strange charm to them, it was not unlike having two capable and yet at times, child-like individuals. They'd proved themselves time and again with her, to be clever and insightful. Koko halted the thought process, with her twin tails twitching in annoyance.

 _'Damn it, not again! Once more stupid droning thoughts, are so not worth my time.'_

It was real anger, but a spike in her annoyance was visible in her demeanor. Something that Kageo noticed and quietly nudged her hand onto the top of his hood. He was encouraging her to continue to pet him without a word. That of course was a strong reminder that Kageo was good at reading her mood, such as it was, that didn't really surprise her. It was how she was petting him again, a little more vigorously along the top of his head.

"Ha, well guess you're good for something, eh Kageo?" Kokonoe joked and ruffled the hair upon his head.

After a while, Kokonoe stopped petting him and scratched along the top of his ear. She conceded that it was calming and now that she'd been cool headed enough, she was going to call Kagura.

"Guess I'll likely do that if I'm having a day that's a pain in the ass. Rest up Kageo, you'll need it." the pink haired beastkin laughed as she headed off.

The pain from sparring would her would be very real, and that would be nothing compared to the kind of pain she had given him so far. These days were going to be rough on them both, but she felt that they'd be handling it well enough. That was what she needed next, the physical conditioning for the operation ahead. Simulation would only go so far and she was more than capable of fighting. She may have loathed fighting, but it had a certain rush to it and she was going to hone that edge.

She needed to be ready for delivering the final blow to Terumi when the opportunity presented itself. It was going to be time to send that disgusting bastard to hell. But it was not out of hatred, it was pure business for her now. The lack of hatred felt more like her, a cool minded, logical aim that merely served her purpose. Once she destroyed every last bit of him, it was onto another objective.

This was how she worked, Professor Kokonoe Mercury would attend to the business that held her back for so very long. This was only the beginning for her, as she had plans to expand her realm of success. Action would allow her the means to an end. It was going to be time to turn up the pace and use her remaining time before the plan to train off any cobwebs she had. Physical combat wasn't her favorite thing to do, but she had a knack for it and hurting her opponents was only a plus. She would remove any obstacle from her path, that was most sure and she would see personally that anything before her was removed. The power of science would prevail where one's own powers and abilities failed...

(End Chapter)

Here we have more of a staunch grasp of her true aim. It is not hatred as a motivation, now just business, as Terumi is but another obstacle in her path. With those loyal to her, she will affirm the means to achieving her goals! Let's find out how difficult this road is. Until the next chapter, I bid you adieu.

-Quentix


	6. Chapter: Counter-Intuitive, Part II

A/N: We arrive at the fifth chapter ladies and gents! Coming to this fine point as Kokonoe's training reaches a new height, as she finalizes things for her next plan. Her two Kaka will give her that match that she's been waiting for and we'll see what comes of it, and whatever else comes to our fine professor's mind. She thinks only of the next step and its results being justified by whatever action she takes. Let's see where Professor Kokonoe guides us next!

On with the chapter!

(End A/N)

–

Chapter V: Counter-Intuitive, Part II

Such as it was there was nothing that she could have wished for more. To see the fruits of labor actually paying off for her, here she had both of her foolish minions starting to show some serious gains. The pair of them had been a pain in the ass up until now, but at least were starting to show her some promise in outcome. Both of them had been showing her promise, it was a nice thing to spy in one's underlings. But at least Kokonoe was starting to feel that at least of the damned things she was doing was getting somewhere.

"Honestly, those two are so energetic, I'll never know where it comes from." the pink eared scientist found herself chuckling a little, before rising from her seat.

It was such a rare day to see her smile or not be sneering at the screen and the data involved in it. Still, she found herself amused by her focus today. Such as it had been, the plans with Kagura were hitting some walls due to Hibiki being so damned thorough. He checked out every little thing with her and any resource she was bringing in from the outside. He was sure as hell thorough, though a pain to deal with also.

The crabby feline scientist got up, tails swaying from side to side as she went across her coffee and finished it off, though it was lukewarm by now. Still the sweetener made it tolerable, as it came to be: this was the only way she'd accept her coffee or espresso shots.

"Ah, that sweetener, that's what I'm talking about." Koko would yawn and then walk towards the door.

It was time to go and at least stretch, after all physical exercise demanded such a thing. She murmured something to this effect while working her way past a yawn. Certainly, she was not taking it too seriously; even though she had been looking up to all day. This was one of the few things that got her blood actually pumping. It had been about two weeks since her foolish agent had received his power increase.

She was proud to note all the changes had been positive, up and up as far as it went for growth. Tactics of Kagina's had increased dramatically since her joining her brother in training, it was just enough to be annoying. It made her work that much harder, something that she enjoyed personally. The chance to flex one's mind and to give a little more thought than just instinctual attacks and the like was always nice for her.

"Stretching...bah." it was something that she liked to do...in limited capacity, but now here she was stretching out, dressed in her workout clothing.

Though part of her was looking up to this, it was going to be a time where she would actually try. This was going to really relieve her stress, she'd take all of it on these two. At least the plan sounded nicer in her mind, since it gave them more of a difficult training program to attend to. At least she took some solace that she was way tougher than some training program maxed out. That was something that she was glad that she maintained, even when rusty was still being pretty damn good at it.

Yeah it was a bit of ego stroking, but so what? It was what she did, a little stress relief had come a long way for her and prepared her for what was ahead. Still that was enough thinking on that, as she headed to the training room where the twins were; her head was held high.

 _'This is going to be kick ass...for once I'm looking forward to a fight. Who'd have guessed it, me of all people?'_

The thought made her chuckle before she left it alone. Still clearing the hall, with a bottle of water and a face towel over her shoulders, she entered the training room where the two had been preparing. It had not taken very long for her to see both twins standing ready, with weapons of choice presently tucked away. The Professor set her gear aside and popped his neck as she approached the two, smirking a little bit as there was no reason not to be so proud. She placed a hand on her hip and gestured towards the pair as she spoke.

"Don't tell me you two are trying to start bare handed. I've no such intentions, I hope you realize." Koko did not let her grin break.

"Oh we've made no mistakes, this is how we wish to start." Kageo spoke first and Kagina smiled back at the Professor's smirk.

"Yes, we have a plan or four to try." Kagina said before the two stepped to her sides.

Kokonoe stood ready and gestured with two fingers, it was simply for them to come and get some now. It didn't take very long for Kagina to make the first move, using her reach she threw a punch for Kokonoe with great speed. It was nothing that Koko wasn't ready for, she parried the punch to her left and with a gentle tug of Kagina's wrist to her left, she sent the taller Kaka into a side body toss. As Kagina let her body flip sideways, she landed on one hand and one knee, while Kageo tried a roundhouse kick aimed for Kokonoe's shoulder.

While Kageo landed the kick, Kokonoe simply twisted his ankle with the grip she established once he landed the kick. After the grip of her left hand tightened around his ankle, she used some of her monstrous strength and tossed Kageo to her right. The maneuver got him to tumble twice and then spring back up to his feet. The two-tailed scientist summoned her boost hammer and brought it down in an overhead swing towards Kageo, planning to end the spar quickly if he wasn't ready. The hammer would never reach Kageo, as he brought both of his tachi pair from the hidden sheathes along his sides and blocked the hammer's strike.

The tactic was a diversion and in fact as Kokonoe briefly focused on Kageo, her ears twitched with the sound of foot steps and she quickly released the hammer; letting it drop into its phase space. Just before she turned on a dime to grab Kagina's collar and tugged her forward. As the two nearly came into contact, Kokonoe using a tele-warping device and she switched places with the confused Kaka. After Kagina halted her sword slash just shy of her brother, Kageo grabbed her by the arm and tugged her forward and down. The maneuver helped her to avoid a wide swing with the boost hammer's drilling tip.

It was a moment for the pair to pull back. This was a bad idea to engage at low power, as Koko clearly made sure to show off. There was no mercy in her simple movements so far, they had to amp it up. The air around the two started to warp, gaining the signs of rapid change as an aura of black and indigo burned around the two. Both had engaged the A.C.S. system and were about ready to act.

Koko stepped back and dodged a slash before summoning one of her boost knuckles, she opened up the large hand and grabbed the tachi blade before tugging forward. Kagina widened her stance and held her footing before sweeping the second blade of hers in a low angle horizontal slash towards Koko's waist. The professor jumped back and landed with a grin, finally it was getting a little more fun.

"That's it, I told you not to screw around, better show me more, since I'm not breaking a sweat yet." Koko was expecting much more bang for her buck. All of this time put into increasing up Kageo's power base and ensuring that the pair were both better off with weaponry and everything.

The result, however, was going to show itself in a big way. Both Kagina and Kageo were testing what Kokonoe was willing to tolerate and so far, she was within their realm of expectation. The scientist took the time to advance on Kagina, quickly bringing her hammer around for a wide arc swing aimed for her lab assistant. The attack was blocked with a robust defense, both blades of Kagina's catching the edge of the drilling hammer, despite the constant spiraling motion of the hammer. The hammer smashed through a construct with ease, something in the room of a pillar was now missing a chunk.

Kagina jumped back with Kokonoe in pursuit, thrust the spiraling hammer edge at her waist, using the hammer with some great proficiency despite her preference for no combat. The sheer force wave was enough to make Kagina hesitate a moment, the Professor did mean business and it worried her.

"Kagina!" the lab assistant's twin snapped her out of her stupor and she jumped high into the air, while Kageo took her place.

"Don't hesitate, or I'll smash you to bits." Koko said with a smirk as she casually avoided spear thrusts from Kageo.

The warning was the second one that she had given during this time, it was not one that she would give a third time. Still the measure of the time could not be given even in seconds. The clashing came rapidly, as Kokonoe's attack did not halt.

 **'Clang!'**

The weaponry clanged together as the two-tailed scientist clashed with the Two Kaka midair. The force had been so much that a hum from the clang resounded in the room, shaking up both parties. As Kageo moved left, he'd moved in closer to the Professor, he was met by a swift attack. Though he managed to parry a kick aimed for his ribs; both forearms, were shaking from the force of the kick. It was mighty enough to send tremors through his body.

Kagina attacked Kokonoe with a dividing slash of her tachi blades, hoping to hit her waist; she fell shy of hitting the half beastkin professor and only gashed her favored white lab coat.

"Tch. You almost got me, but almost isn't enough!" Koko mused and then kicked Kagina hard in the chest.

The kick had sent the lab assistant to the ground with a thud, though she rolled onto her side and got up. Kagina had toughened up over the past few weeks, learning that she had to tough things out. There would be a chance to excess major damage, beyond small pains after the battle. Her twin had been teaching her how to ignore the pain or at least, move with it and deal with it on the move. Once on her feet, she'd gathered a charge of caeroule energy along her left tachi's edge before unleashing it in a slash wave.

Kokonoe grinned widely, as her yellow-amber eyes was lit with amusement at the attack. She blocked it with a holographic shield and with a bit of effort, shoved it away from her.

"Hah! That's what I'm talkin' about! You two better not be done!" it seemed that Koko wasn't done talking.

She kept on them both, during each follow-up attack, a resulting clash of energy, sound, and sheer force was an amazing impact. Still the twins were getting nowhere with their assault. The tactics had been sound, trying pincer attacking from two ends; even attacking on a combined front had not intimidated her slightly. It was the entertainment that she'd hoped for nonetheless, a drastic switch up from the stress relief sessions she'd had earlier. Perhaps it was time for that last gambit they'd been training for.

"Now's the time." Kageo said loud enough to be heard. Kagina simply nodded and had taken stance: one of shoulders length apart and immediately an aura of black and indigo shot up around both kakas.

Kageo's body briefly flexed with the energy, before he disappeared in a streak of black and indigo. While Kagina had done the same, both Kaka were leaving a path of cracked ground beneath them. The tremors in the air were easily noted by Kokonoe, who braced with her gauntlets: noting easily that they had lacked the boost knuckles this time. She was looking to catch their weapons, though she was actually having a moment keeping up with them. Jumping back, Koko managed to avoid the initial rush and attack of the pair.

As the first to realize where she had moved, Kagina rushed Kokonoe and her left leg shot out in a rushing rise; while at the same time her swords thrust at the Professor's center. The swords were both grabbed by the blades and gripped, but Kagina's heel found its mark.

"Unngh!" Kokonoe grunted under the first expression of surprised pain to hit her since they began this spar.

Part of her was quite surprised at the raw speed, plus the power behind the kick was a bit higher than she'd calculated. Still as she slid back, she tugged both swords towards her and pushed them down. As she watched Kagina lurch forward, Kokonoe brought her left gauntlet into Kagina's ribs and hit her with enough force to cause her to double over on her knuckles. As the blow staggered Kagina, who was wincing in pain, was now wide open. Taking advantage of this, Kokonoe summoned one of the boost knuckles and punched the Kaka in her chest and sent her flying away on the boosted knuckle.

As it was a spar, the knuckle did not explode on Kagina, but it sent her some distance back before she hit the ground. It was now briefly Kageo vs Kokonoe, certainly in the scientist's favor. As he sidestepped a swing aimed for his shoulder, the hammer smashed into the floor, before it disappeared from sight. Kageo had switched to his Tachi blades, they had the raised hilt of a kodachi; modified to suit his more defensive style. He'd parried a punch of Kokonoe's, then took a double punch to the chest.

"Unf!" the sound came as the air left his lungs forceful. He'd been hit in the solarplexus and he was already feeling the force of it.

"Kageo! Kagina! Get back up, I didn't come here to be faked out. I know you've got more, bring it to the max for me!" Kokonoe's words were both of her disdain and of confidence in the pair. She expected better than this from them both.

Both Kakas stood tall, bearing the bruises of some of the blows they'd taken over the spar. Kagina looked determined and gestured with her tail to her brother, at which point the two ran at Kokonoe simultaneously. With Tachi blades held out at their sides, the two acted in synchronous motion; which was quite a sight to see. The two tossed both blades up in front of each other and at once, they both jumped and took to the air. The spectacle briefly caught Kokonoe, though she immediately focused upon the two who brought their blades together and appeared to synchronize their energies as one with the blades.

"Jinzou Aichou, activate!" Kagina and Kageo had been quick to activate their swords' true form.

Kokonoe grinned widely at the sight of the energized swords: both glowing with a luminous blue light and with the fields changing shape into that of massive claws. How proud she was of not only the activation of it, but the use of one of her finest achievements: she couldn't help but be smug.

 _'This is just another way you'll die, Terumi. You bastard.'_ this said as the thought briefly passed.

She was happy, plenty proud of her active focus on him. Without emotions ruining her train of thought, there was no way that she'd lose she felt. Plain and simple, plans could be put to use and a multitude in the same direction would eventually find success. Though her thoughts were broken as she watched the two land, the theta state of hers had ended: time to focus on the fight. She gritted her teeth and summoned her mini-guns.

"Time to amp it up, baby." Kokonoe said this with a wide smirk and opened fire on both of the Kakas.

"Gaah!" Kageo jumped and darted along an angled path in order to pick up as much speed as he could while evading. With no time to focus, he was at a pace that seemed to be building greatly; with the gunfire on his heels he increased his speed.

"Aiyee!" Kagina's cries were heard as she hastily evaded the life ammunition that was just at her back.

The two Kaka were let up on after several minutes of running, they were away from the Professor; pushed back by the gunfire. Though it seemed to pan out, as Kokonoe drew out a secondary weapon of hers, an odd looking gun of sorts. With the two protrusions the two didn't realize what they were in for, so they turned around and hunted after her. With this activity going on all within the matter of several seconds, as the two raced towards her; Kokonoe shot the liquid against the ground and froze it. During the instant following the tactic, Kageo's foot hit the ice and started to slip. He performed a quick forward motion backflip in an attempt to recover, while Kagina leapt high over the ice, as she'd seen her brother's slip up.

A strong sense of spatial awareness for Kageo allowed him to land safely at first, though he'd never noticed Kokonoe overhead as she came down on him with her foot and planted it in his back. The move forced him straight to the ground, while she summoned her mini-guns and immediately opened fire on Kagina once again.

"Ha ha! This is what I'm talking about!" Kokonoe hadn't felt so alive in some time.

It was interesting how battle could do that, even without the emotional impact, she was still enjoying herself greatly. This was beyond words and while it was fun, it did have to come to an end. She'd left her mini-gun on Kageo's back and dashed at Kagina, who was still dodging her final shots. Kokonoe found her body moving with a grace that was unlike her usual degree. She closed the distance in a matter of seconds and as Kagina attempted a slash of her tachi blades, the sweeping attack narrowly hit Koko in her shoulder as she avoided it mostly. With the graze annoying her, she summoned her electro rod and thrust it into her lab assistant's ribs and it activated.

Still the spirited battle was over shortly after it got serious. Kokonoe felt alive, thrilled by the engagement that the two had planned for her. She had been pretty lucky to have some thrifty, active Kaka who were trying to amp things up for her. Yeah, sure it had been an order, but they did their best and that was all that she could ask of them. After she'd removed the rod from Kagina's ribs, she watched her fall over and let off a light laugh.

"I think I went overboard, but at least I know you can handle it." Koko looked at Kageo, who was squirming under the mini-gun.

Kagina was gasping for air and her body shivered with tremors still after the shock had been administered. As the younger of the twins rubbed her stomach, finally getting control over her body somewhat; she coughed out black smoke as the frying had gone a bit deep.

"That hurt...-cough-, Professor. Did you have to shock me so much?" Kagina couldn't help but complain at it.

"Oh hush, I took it easy on you. That was a decent effort back there, more than I expected, but you left yourself open! So you paid the price, your enemy won't be kind to you, so I was giving you a sample of how bad it gets." Kokonoe crossed her arms as she waved her hand and caused her mini-gun to teleport off of Kageo's back.

As Kageo got up slowly, he'd rubbed his back, but said nothing. He had given his near best shot here and was stopped before he could really connect any major hits. Kokonoe was easily capable of stopping them both and did just that to the pair with such ease, that it astounded him. He knelt down and tried to recover from the shock of pain, as he had been worked over quickly and harshly. This was what he expected from Kokonoe's training regimen. It wasn't just for her, it was for them too; getting better and to coordinate better as agents.

'Ha! That was satisfying, though I expected a bit more a struggle. What the hell, it was fun, albeit short-lived.'

The thought seemed to be just what it was, a simple, short bit that relayed how she felt about the spar. Still while she was thrilled and the data was good for her, now she was going to have to make use of the fact this was happening. The next thing they'd be doing is shipping off to Ikaruga from here. They were going to be getting things rolling finally, as the big act was finally stable. Though she wasn't sure how much she actually trusted Kagura, it was merely convenient for her to team up with someone planning a coup.

"Kagina, take your brother and gather my private files, we're going to the airship ready. It's about time we get a move on. The new phase of the plan is about to begin, gather it and start loading up the ship's bay. Gather all the essentials, then we're going to go ahead and get ready to pick up Tager in Kagustuchi." Koko's plans were well laid out, nothing that would slow her much if at all.

-Several Hours Later-

Kokonoe had gotten her workout done and the fact that she was planning another one was more or less clues to her minions that they'd be taking another beating. This also gave her upgrades or at the very least, updates she could run from the software aspects to her Jinzou Aichou pairs. The two had been designed similarly, but fundamentally different considering the two that wielded them. Still simply another equation for another time, and as Koko typed away on her computer; she idly rubbed Kageo's ears and looked at the mostly empty lab.

She considered how well they worked together and decided that sending the pair off to do tasks together might not be bad, if anything for its efficiency. It took a little effort on part of Koko to remain focused on finishing up the detailed report that she promised to Kagura's attaché, but like any good feline she was getting bored.

"Tch. Don't know why I need to give that little puke such a detailed report, eh...at least its about done." the pink haired scientist murmured and resumed typing for several minutes before she found the data done.

Once she sent it off, Kokonoe got up and headed towards her room without a word. It was one of those rare things that she'd do, not sleeping in the lab, she'd gestured to Kageo and sent him off.

"Go on Kageo, get some rest. It's 4 am, you'll need it today, I need you up in 7 hours, we're loading up and heading out." Koko's words were met with enthusiasm.

"I'll be ready, as will Kagina, whenever you need us." Kageo said this as he started trotting out of the lab.

That part of his devotion and even to a point, Kagina's devotion still differed. She didn't understand it and considered all of the notes she'd taken during their interactions. Still she found him ever amusing and mildly interesting. He'd grown more comfortable with her and did not offer any odder motivations for why he was so devoted; if anything he seemed to be all but completely on board with whatever it was that she did.

 _'Heh, he's really comfortable now, rather harmless as I let him get a little closer to me. He hasn't made any assumptions which is a wonder. Honestly, I'm impressed with his demeanor, even if he knows better about being a pervert. The thought never crosses his mind, literally. Good nature and parameters to avoid it, seems set in by him; still a smart kid...and yet he also did this in all cases of interactions with females.'_ again more thoughts to keep of note, he was either too afraid or smart enough in this case to know not to get hurt.

All of this aside, was just conjecture in her mind, all mental notes that she was keeping on Kageo. Still while it wasn't a major concern of anything, over the past few months she had been observing interesting changes in his behavior; a few in her own. While not outright dependency, the two were closer and with no emotional attachment she had still grown used to his presence. He was mildly soothing in some strange way, almost like having a lap cat or something to that degree. Still the effects were all the same and to her none were quite as good as what she felt right now.

At any rate, once she was back in her room she'd plopped down on her bed. Once she had found herself into a semi-comfortable position, she started typing once again on another little report of sorts, this was her daily log for the private experiment as she ran it. Once again she found Kageo's conforming behavior had a few slight variants, nothing that was out of the ordinary. Though it did seem to get her to respond in some minor way; usually by touch in order to quell something of an odd feeling that welled within the pit of her stomach. It was akin to comfort, though more like just knowing that he was there and he knew where he belonged.

 _'Yeah that's an odd thing to mention...it's not quite ownership, though no doubts come from Kageo, who created him and the damned like.'_ Nothing out of the ordinary, as she had had this down to predictable parameters of her little social experiment.

She murmured to herself mentally, it was not up for any kind of debate. But her weird little connection with her subordinate at least differed on a mental level and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

 _'Eh it doesn't really matter? Whatever the hell it is, just another noose around the kitten's neck. He's already devoted and this is just kinda pathetic.'_ she was done with the focus again, sometimes she really did think too much.

Koko did look down on the behavior somewhat, even if he was content in it. She wasn't going to let that draw what it was that came to her mind as a thing, it wasn't an indicator of anything really. Just another random thought and she found herself tickled over the fact that part of her was still thinking about it even after she finished the report. It was time to settle in for the final moments of sleep. She was planning to snooze on the airship ride as well, but she did need to be awake for part of it.

Tomorrow was the real big day, it was going to be the start in the first of several major steps towards getting the groundwork for this plot laid out. One man's insurrection was her opportunity, that was exactly what Kokonoe was considering to come of this. Another day had passed and it was the last of Koko's days off, now she was going to make her mark upon the world and get her revenge finally.

-The Following day-

Kokonoe had gotten up some hours before the time she'd charged Kageo to be up. Though of course, she was already grumpy since she didn't sleep that well last night (her own fault, but it's easy to blame someone else!). That rest had not been long enough and she was on the war path. She came into her lab to a steaming cup of coffee, a few lollipops and the pair of Kaka coming back to a very empty lab. They'd covered exactly what was needed.

"The hell? This efficiency is a bit much, even for you two. What gives?" Kokonoe was instantly suspicious of the two, were they sucking up for some reason?

"We woke early, got things done, have been collaborating since! Kageo's not so bad in the lab!" Kagina seemed excited by this, she'd never seen him at work. He was almost as efficient as she was at the job, and that was given this was what she was born to do, literally.

Though it seemed to be counterproductive to have a Kaka of all things, as a lab assistant, it was easier to work with their DNA and you had a bodyguard if you needed it. The proper training was still the thing in question, neither Kagina nor Kageo were where they could have been at a skill level. But beggars couldn't be choosers, she sure as hell wasn't a beggar and so she expected them to improve, simple as that. Still more pointless side thoughts, she was sure full of those today she found. Back on the task at hand for her, Koko found herself walking on auto-pilot whilst sipping her coffee.

"Perfect coffee, tastes like your doing today, right Kagina?" She was able to tell who's hand was finer at it, more details paid attention to.

"Right! Brother taught me all I needed to know." Kagina admittedly happily, that was still so fresh for her. Having a brother who could show her things.

"Yeah, thought as much." Kokonoe knew that difference, since Kageo still added sweetener based upon her mood. That little bit of surprise flair made his coffee and espresso rival Kagina's masterful touch to the brewing.

 _'Clever little pair I've engineered, honestly...knowing everything about that hasn't made them entirely predictable. Live and learn I suppose.'_ it was just a mild amusing thought, briefly passing through her mind, she let it go and sighed briefly.

With the two still finishing up the cleanup in the lab, Koko decided to call it and they'd go early since they were ready.

"Alright you two, let's get going. We're leaving early! The faster we get Tager, Makoto, and Noel, the better." Kokonoe did think that was a good idea, the sooner she could give them yet another set of things to do, the better to ease her mind.

If anything the walk to the airship was one of minor annoyance for Kokonoe. Only because once she left her portion of Sector Seven, she found herself bothered by couriers and other little worms who worked for bigger pains in the ass. THIS was the problem with the bureaucratic idiots in this place, they were too busy demanding results and looking for money rather than concern of theirs. The sooner they got out of the dock, the faster she could avoid any extra questions and dodge any other wastes of time. She was not going to be bogged down with any of this nonsense, she'd get them results when she felt like it. The investment of time and energy on her part had trumped their own, all they wanted was to say something stupid and tack their name to the effort to feel like they were responsible for it.

 _'I am so DONE with this damn place, no more questions...no more hoops for a while. Just focus time for me.'_ she'd murmured to herself, while walking the hallway. Anyone else was ignored now, she was eager to get out of this annoyance.

The Professor led her two agents down the hall at a swift pace, while looking over something on a holo pad, she was wasting no time with the people who tried to stop her to talk. She was in no mood and as they neared the dock for the airship, she let off a sigh, finally they were done here. It was time to get on board, she made sure even to ignore a running attendant with some papers for her to sign.

"Send it via holo pad, I'll sign then." with the hint of zero patience in her voice, the air dock attendant wearily nodded and stepped back as she boarded and after her, Kagina and Kageo both hopped in, the door would shut and the launch procedure would begin.

Now headed to the heirarchical city of Yabiko, and on the way picking up the rest of her motley crew of Underlings. Tager was closest to grab, then picking up Noel and Makoto would follow, they would have to go slightly out of the way, but that was nothing new. As she gave commands to the Captain to the direction and what they'd be doing, she did so impatiently before heading back to private cabin. In the room she found the pair at work, moving the few boxes around before looking up and noting that Kokonoe had returned. It was time to go now, and as the two started out, she stopped them briefly.

"You're both on call, alright? That is all." she'd say this before gesturing for them to go.

"Yes Professor." the pair nodded in synchronized action before heading out to the other cabin for some rest as it were.

Kagina opened the door to the cabin that she was to be sharing with her brother and with a light breath, she flopped onto her stomach on the bed. Kageo locked the door and dropped onto the bed beside her, working for the Professor could be really draining. And as the Kaka pair settled down for the rest on the bed, Kagina snuggling into her brother. Neither they nor Kokonoe could know what lay ahead on their path. It was going to be a messy one, if anything something that was going to an uphill battle. Just another one to chalk up for Kokonoe's mind and planning.

(End Chapter)

–

We have the end of the chapter and things rolling in motion! Kokonoe gets things going and we're into the beginnings of Chronophantasma! Things shall only get more excited as this goes on, I am looking forward to much more flow and action. Until the next Professor's Notes!

I must bid you all adieu

-Quentix


	7. Chapter: The Ikaruga Gamble

A/N: Another story that is long since overdo to be picked up, so here we go right back into the fray. As this is one of my more ambitious tales, getting back into it and the other two in the same genre has been nothing but a delight. The Professor's Notes returns with some brand new bouts of fun in this chapter. All readers prepare to enjoy a treat, as we pick up from where we left on with everyone's favorite, sarcastic Professor with an attitude.

Here we go!

(End A/N)

Chapter VI: The Ikaruga Gamble

While in her private room, Professor Kokonoe addressed one of the many unfinished issues that crowded her work queue, there was always something to attend to for her. In such a case, her desire to see less of them clouding her vision by the time they landed simply wouldn't be a thing that would happen. There was always something else for her to do and she knew it, by now it had been at least 7 hours into the flight until they made it to the port. Part of her was eternally bored with trying to clear something that wasn't going to end, this being another reason she loathed almost as much as being free to think. She was not going to be stalled by her own procrastination in the form of thoughts, as with a supercomputer's efficiency, Kokonoe cleared that nearly unending queue in less than an hour by devoting her mental faculties to the task fully.

Though part of her couldn't help but focus on what was bothering her at the moment: that being the fact that some part of her mind was still lingering on her minor aside, the small social experiment involving herself and her agent, Kageo. They hadn't interacted closely beyond her rubbing his head and allowing him to snuggle into her while she worked. It was all kind of cute when turning one's attention to it. If that was something that mattered, this was a matter of trying to find some answer for Kageo's strange and at times completely illogical decisions involving her. He'd grown closer to her from his end of business: showing more devotion, focusing on every task involving her request or command, it was akin to a soldier following their orders at the surface.

His emotional connection was easily notable, he was fond of her, his crush seemed to mature into something more, he trusted her implicitly. All of the things that wasn't so far off from even his sister and yet still it differed. It was not any greater a devotion than Tager or Kagina to her, but it was the warmth that he put into his actions that made it differ. She even considered that it might be the greatest and most ill of constants born in people, yet she had no confirmation for that. Kageo was not some great mystery, but rather a mildly amusing aberration within the behavior of one of her agents. Even though she told herself that, some part of her was not satisfied with the answer: hence the reason for her experiment's goal to give her an answer.

"God dammit." the vocal expression of her frustration came the moment following as she let her hand smack the end of her cabin's desk. Part of her was done thinking about it, she felt crabby from a lack of rest, well all was going well enough despite that.

Obviously not for her, some part of her had the desire to rub Kageo's head again, maybe even to hold him and just stop thinking all together. There it was again, that urge that was so like an owner with their pet. Was that what she thought of him? Some part of her again, wondered just what the hell that she felt towards him, and she had no answer. That was what this whole thing was about, her experiment, there was not supposed to be something that followed within that moment of executing her carefully laid out plan. For now, this required something closer, she needed his closeness and decided to just buzz him. Even without emotional content in her focus, she was still distracted and stress could be a factor.

"-Kageo, come to my cabin, on the double.-" the words were simple, direct and to the point.

"-Affirmative Professor-" though the words came within moments of her request, the once sleeping Kaka was stretching out and yawning.

He slowly slipped away from his sister and after stretching and rising, he headed to change into his secondary Kaka jacket/coat, imagining that the Professor had something for him to do. He couldn't possibly know what she wanted, so he was going to be ready for anything. He didn't make a big deal of it, no complaining, some part of him felt that need to give her whatever she needed. The request could be crazy and as long as it was plausible, he'd see that it happened, and duty was only half of the reason. Foolish perhaps or cavalier with his time, Kageo felt that it was easily worth her time and that was easy enough to consider.

It took him no time at all to traverse the halls of the airship, since he had a mental map of the location and making his way to the Professor's main cabin was thus, a simple task. He couldn't help but feel a little bit anxious, while arriving at the door and knocking on it lightly, his tail swaying lightly at the tip while his ears perked up: as if trying to hear the reason through the Professor's footsteps. A strange tension that built within his gut and made him feel like he needed to apply himself more to the situation grew out of nowhere. What could he could do now except face the music, did he do something wrong? There were so many questions that fell silent as the door opened up and Kokonoe met her agent's gaze, an eye to eye with him quite easy given he was her height. She had a calm expression upon her features while she lightly rubbed the top of his head and without a word, draped an arm around his side and drew him close.

-Inside of Professor Kokonoe's Cabin-

 _'Ha I think that I've finally lost it, just calling him down here, he might think I'm going soft...but to hell with it right? I need to just rest, it helps having a dumb cat with me.'_ though this was more of a mental joke, while the Professor considered it, she was acting pretty much on auto-pilot. The very thing that calmed her nerves had something distinctly to do with the company that she chose. Of course she never thought to consider his feelings on the matter, since they were irrelevant really, they didn't impact her decisions.

This behavior wasn't new to him fortunately, she did this whenever she needed to loosen up or let go of some stress that was bothering her. Though he did not exactly have any context for this particular embrace, he felt that she wasn't going to talk about it, so he never asked. Instead the kaka leaned into the embrace of the one armed hold, Kokonoe drew him into her room and moved to her big bed, without a hitch she hoisted Kageo up with ease and held him to her side. With him secure, she hopped onto her bed and upon landing she let off a small huff of air after bouncing a little from the initial landing. Kageo couldn't help but wonder if it was fun for her a moment? He always thought of little things like that, often without a formed thought.

It was a wonder that she hadn't been more frustrated, but she did cease thinking about anything beyond her comfort. She held the kaka in her arms, the way one holds a stuffed animal or a cat that was a rag doll. She found the situation was comfortable, she held Kageo and didn't put much stock in the thought about anything else. Having him in her company kept her mind quieted and for the time being she didn't think of a single thing beyond just relaxing. Effectively keeping her mind blank while occasionally stroking the top of Kageo's head, along his hood covered scalp.

For several moments there was nothing said between the two, Kokonoe was simply content with rubbing the top of Kageo's head while looking upon him. What really got to her was why she was allowing the closeness? Why was she really after it? Logic should have dictated an answer, especially with a mind like hers. But here she lay with the feline in her arms and she had no words for it. Comfort was the only thing that came out of it, even someone without emotion could still desire something to help the stress go away. It was part of what made a sociopath, she knew the whole psychological profile of the 'typical' sociopath, that word used very loosely. Even with that in mind, she had no answer and part of her demanded an answer, even though she had nothing for it.

She had nothing else offered on her side of thinking, not that made any sense anyway. Especially with how fast she dismissed anything involving emotions, with hers nullified, there was nothing to be concerned with. Perhaps it was something far simpler like a fondness towards her agents, the fact that he acted so cute not changing a single thing in short for her. It was certainly something that superficial, the thought of it making her visibly laugh as she shook her head. She overlooked such a simple answer and taking that into advisement, the twin-tailed scientist felt that she made the proper logical outcome.

 _ **'So many little reasons, you can't just feel anything, can you? Too guilty I imagine? All of that done with Lambda-11, you failed her. You don't want to fail another do you..?'**_

 _'We are not going into a pointless conversation, I feel nothing, we've covered this basis. Why don't you just get on board and fall in line? Wasting my faculties with pointless, hypothetical conjectures that have no basis in reality. I did fail and as a result, my agent did fall doing something illogical because she disobeyed orders. Trying as the moment was, its passed now and there is no more of an issue.'_

 _ **'Logic is so trivial when one disregards the facts, that there is concern-'**_

 _'Naturally, one's subordinates must be kept in prime shape to keep them as effective as possible. This includes mental health, such an exercise towards Kageo is exactly suited to that purpose. He has been performing better due to the stimulus, any other questions or avenues you want to try?'_

 _ **'Even with nullified emotions, there is a bond with this kaka, with Kageo. You sense it deep inside of you-'**_

 _'Irrelevant. The bond services as a means of ensuring his loyalty, his focus, and his devotion. He will not keep secrets, not that he could, furthermore the fondness is a typical attachment that comes from one's possessions. I created Kageo, Kagina, and their weapons. One creator cannot help but take pride in their work. Anything else?'_

 _ **'...Your denial is really something.'**_

 _'This conversation is terminated.'_

Finally, Kokonoe shut that stupid voice in her mind up with cold hard facts, though it was hard to believe that she of all people was having that as an issue. Of course she lost track of time in terms of her focus, she was still holding Kageo and at some point she dragged him against her side completely. His head was resting on her shoulder and she was rubbing along his back, yet there was no discomfort or even awkwardness in terms of how she felt. Was he asleep? She heard his breathing was softer than earlier and slower as well, it was gentle and rhythmic now, almost soothing to her ears. He was definitely cute now and she had to admit that much, it even made her smile a little bit.

Of course, this was just the faintest of smiles, just enough to show that she was almost completely on the reverse of her earlier stressed mood. This was just about as effective as petting a kaka kitten minus the mewling for food and the constant movement. Naturally to her it was a good time, a nice admission that she was able to just let this go. Holding him was just another thing that she accepted she did, the equivalent of patting his head or holding him in her lap at the desk. He **was** a big cat after all, compliant and practically with the nature of a lap cat. While Kokonoe briefly considered whether or not it was strange for her to be so comfortable, her answer was a very swift and certain 'No'. Things only got awkward when someone let it get that way, she was not that kind of person and wasn't going to start acting like one either.

-Several Hours Later-

No more than twenty minutes from landing, Professor Kokonoe was on the bridge bored once again, looking over and reviewing the preliminary scans about Ikaruga and how things have been in terms of NOL activity. It was one of the closer watched cities, fortunately it was under General Mutsuki's jurisdiction and thus, she imagined that some leverage was in her hands. She was always plotting something in case or the need of a contingency plan needed on the fly. It was just necessity that bred the need for back up plans, she was not planning on failing, in this case sticking it to the Imperator was only part of the plan. Her goal happened to align with Kagura's, the perfect connection over this little thing with a single goal to sink all of their enemies. Restoring the proper Imperator to command, she knew Kagura's goals aligned with her since it would destabilize Terumi's allies and cut his strings.

She could feel that the plan had its own merit, now she'd have to deal with Kagura and all of his idiocy. This was not referring to the man called the 'Black Knight' as an idiot for his actions, but his flirting was tiresome and they'd only spoken a few times. It was just something that she knew that she was going to put her foot down on quickly, she would not be tolerating his nonsense: with herself or Kagina. Of course, she didn't have to warn her subordinate about anything as meeting him would make that clear and due to Kagina's natural mystique and her endowments, she'd catch his eye for certain. All that Kokonoe hoped was that she'd make him pay for it in some way, physically hitting him was not really the way of the Kaka. He was a nice enough guy, but there were more devastating means to get back at him that involved food.

"Oh hell yes, I hope that happens." Kokonoe's laugh came and briefly caused Kageo to look back with a curious look, something that she dismissed with a light wave of her hand.

Holding up the Professor's gear in a number of bags, both Kagina and Kageo stood ready to get off as the airship landed. Wasting no time, Kokonoe stepped towards the exit with her kaka entourage following her, along the way she'd gathered both Noel and Makoto, leaving the two to come along with her carrying their own gear. Everyone came prepared, with Tager bringing up the rear of the group, the mobile department of Sector Seven's force was en route to their storage area in the city. Just before several of them would head for the rendezvous point with Kagura. Things appeared to be going according to plan so far, within the half hour she ran into Kagura and after a moment of tension, it fell away as Kagura stepped forward and gave a casual salute. At this point that followed it, Kokonoe gave directives for everyone to follow Captain Hibiki to the Librarium Base of Operations.

"Professor Kokonoe, its so good to see you! Glad you could make it in person this time, I mean the Red Devil is to the point, but just not as pleasant to look at, you know what I mean?" the suave sounding Kagura Mutsuki spoke with a line of charm that would have the average woman sighing. Unfortunately for him, the no-nonsense nature of the Professor was abundantly clear in her response to him.

"You actually made it on time, I thought you'd be off screwing around or perhaps someone at this time. Good to see you could actually make the secret rendezvous that your assistant planned. I'm almost impressed with that, Mutsuki." adjusting her glasses briefly, the pink haired scientist looked upon the taller, more imposing Kagura with a straight poker face.

Kagura feigned visible pain at her words, since she was so cold and harsh as usual.

"It hurts me to see that you are still as cold and as distant as ever, Professor Kokonoe. I'm sure I could warm you up if you'd let me...well you or maybe that new girl I just saw." he said this while looking over his shoulder, spying the curves of the second kaka that he saw walking, wearing a matching blue kaka coat to the one beside her.

"Yeah, moving to more important things Kagura, its time we get to your office and have a chat about the way things are working here. We've had some developments and you're going to have to pick up the slack. There's nothing more I can do about it from my end, since you're playing host, it means you're going to have to tough it out." the words came in a matter-of-fact tone, there was no room for negotiation: either in her tone or that she'd allow.

"Yeouch, more slack for me to pick up..? You could warn me about these things before." though he was going to deal with it, this did not stop him from complaining.

"Complain all you like, there was no way to predict this, so you adjusting is all you're left with." Kokonoe was not sympathetic to him, he was the one who wanted to usurp the Imperator after all.

"I'll definitely have to come calling then later, maybe you can give me company to soothe my pains?" though he was just teasing, the sharp gaze those golden yellow eyes stared right through him and it made him freeze up a moment. What a gaze...hot damn.

"I'll soothe your pains on my operation table, I've got a few upgrades I can think up for you in an instant." the only kind of company she'd give him was clearly of the more science based.

"Just kidding, J-just kidding...damn." he raised both hands and shook his head, before murmuring again, maybe he could try with that cute Kaka? She looked nice enough. Though the last response that the Professor gave him again made him think that she was psychic or something, it was unnerving.

"As for my assistant, you're free to try talking to her at your own risk." she said this before giving off a sinister laugh before she started walking after her underlings.

"...Too scary." Kagura Mutsuki, the Black Knight had to admit that she was certainly too frightening to flirt with seriously.

-At the Librarium Headquarters-

The large building was a lovely architectural sight to behold, truly a gift from the heavens that blessed the Knights of the Azure Flame...of course this would be if she were that kind of person to praise it in a poetic manner. So where did the Professor get such words from? The thoughts that were unspoken, yet running through the mind of her silly underling Kageo. It was just like a cat to observe a building and pass judgment on it in some way, he was simply too polite about the matter.

Both he and Kagina were, of course the Professor did not put too much focus on a silly little thought. It took about an hour to get all of her supplies into the rather paltry space given to her by the Library. Yeah, she was going to have to expand under the base, probably just resizing things as she went along. It would be a bit of a squeeze, but she could make it work, that was a certain thing. If she could do anything really well, it was taking thinning materials and making it stretch far longer than it might be intended to.

The setup itself was fine, she was busy directing everyone and ensuring that the right things were put in the correct places. With Tager to do the heavy lifting and the twins working on the smaller boxes and items, setting up her desk and computers, all of it seemed to go so easily. Though her mind was still lingering on thoughts around what it was the next steps were: this was the dangerous time now, everything was laid out on the table. It didn't seem to matter about contingency plans and to be frank a part of her was concerned about it. What was going to come of it? Worst come to worst, if everything failed...they'd likely just be executed.

There was nothing that had her fearful of death, but failure was simply not an option to her, vengeance must be had. Her desires, those ambitions had people behind them: all her underlings were loyal, many of them believed in her, yes it was a strange thing to admit but to embrace. Even better for her, it was a thing that still reached her distant her, despite not having a single thread of her emotional content active. The mind and feelings were very strange things, even she knew this, she couldn't put it to words as to why she was moved. Perhaps _this_ was why she was so taken in by her own experiment involving Kageo and observing his emotional responses to her: she wanted an answer and was determined to find one in someone that she literally knew everything about.

How she longed for an answer and seemed determined to grasp it, so that this data too would be hers to understand. As she thought to herself so many idle thoughts, the lab space was set up rather quickly. It only took her underlings something of around 4 to 5 hours, she made sure to give each of them false designations within the Librarium. She was realistic, as everyone would not pass for Librarium officers, but she made them special agents, or vigilantes working under the direction of the Library. Something to give them cover with the average soldier of the Library, she was not eager for confrontation if it could be helped after all.

There was nothing to do now except to take it head on, ensure that her plans were the only thing in her view, the **only** thing that mattered right now was to see all executed properly. Though the day was already getting ahead, taking a dive in terms of freedom...just now past the midday and into the afternoon by now? She had to give them all a break, even Tager. Sure they had higher tolerances, but she was feeling...charitable? A very rare thought in her mind to come if anything, she was not going to do anything extreme, but some down time for them would be good.

"Alright you three, take a few hours to yourself, for good work setting the lab up."

"Three hours? Kind of you, Kokonoe, are you feeling okay?"

"What was that, Tager?"

"Ahem, nothing. Affirmative, Kokonoe, three hours of downtime. I will be recharging."

The amusing commentary had both kakas grinning silly, neither laughing as that was managed to suppress the urge to do. It was always easier to hide behind what was a staple of their tribe when generally happy or amused. Neither spoke for a moment and Kageo gently rubbed his sister's hand, having a good idea to go out for some food.

"Well you two? Get going! Take the break or shall I find something for you to do?" Koko's words came rather quickly, showing her annoyance with the lack of action.

"Oh no, sorry Professor! We were just discussing where to go eat among ourselves." Kagina's response was first, smooth and to the point.

"Well do it out of the lab, scoot." she said before waving her hand idly, focusing on her holopad and the data it was receiving.

At the chance to be free, even for a few hours, the pair hurried out and while heading out, Kageo addressed his sister. Since he knew that she wasn't as good with real word situations as he was, he voiced his concerns to her. She had to have known about the eyes of both Captain Kohaku and General Mutsuki resting upon them? They had to be careful and watch their step, it was just caution that as her brother, he wanted to profess her way.

"Kagina, were you aware that we were being gazed at intensely?"

"Yes, Kageo. Captain Kohaku has a very intense stare, he was certainly looking at us and scrutinizing whether or not we'd be a threat to him or the General."

"Yes...a good analysis of that situation, but I was referring to the general's gaze."

"Ah, the perverted gaze he was giving me? Yes, I could see him even without looking, his eyes were practically undressing me. It was a little annoying." she said with a small laugh, before gently squeezing her brother's hand, he was worrying after her! It felt good to have that, someone concerned about her.

"Oh? Good then, I don't need to concern myself with it, do I?"

"No brother, but its sweet of you to. In fact, I was going to get us a free meal.~" she said this with a small grin on her face.

"Oh? A free meal sister? How do you mean?" Kageo was genuinely curious now and looked at his sister, especially since he was prepared to treat them both to the meal.

"General Mutsuki will probably offer me a meal, I will acccept: with some qualifications to be met before we eat." she said this and looked to her twin brother, expecting him to get it right away. It delighted her to see his eyes light up with amusement, as then she knew that he understood her.

"You sly kitten! A free bout of food for us two." Kageo chuckled at that and swayed his tail behind him, then that meant he would eat better than normal!

"Oh brother, you think so small, try 'three' of us. You, I, and hopefully the Professor." the way that she said this with such intent made Kageo have to stifle a laugh.

"Oh? Wow, sis! That's just...that's so devious!"

"You don't say, where do you think I get it?"

"Oooh no you don't, no blaming that on me. I have the tendency, perhaps, but I don't indulge like you are."

"Pfft, you're just sweeter than I am brother and that's quite alright."

The plan itself was so devious that Kageo actually took amusement in this, more than he should have perhaps. She was going to use her charm to get the General to agree with her provisions and not realize just who the others invited were. Mutsuki was going to be paying out of pocket for quite the feast, since one Kaka could be a nightmare, with two Kaka and a Professor with expensive tastes? The modified agent felt certain that even Kagura was going to feel it in the pockets. Still he went back to thinking about his stomach, one of the few times he'd ever put it first, he knew just what it was that he had a taste for at this time too. For the moment, Kagina told her brother to hang back while she went for a walk, as she had a feeling it wouldn't take long for the "Black Knight" to find her if she were alone.

-In the Headquarters main hall-

To her credit, she was not only right, but the pace was rather impressive for it was no more than a minute or two of her walking down the hall before he found his way to her side. Holding onto that relatively innocent smile, she looked upon Kagura with her intentions well tucked away, oh how devious she was about to be...

"There you are beautiful, I was hoping to see you again! I only got to see one side of you coming off of the ship." the suave Black Knight gave his opening lines, getting straight to the point. He had the charm turned up high and had plans for this to end with dinner plans being met, he had to get this cutie out to a meal.

"Oh? General Mutsuki of the Librarium, Kagura Mutsuki of the Duodecim, also known as the Black Knight for his skill and strength. A ravage along the battlefield, what has you out to find me?" she asked him calmly, paying zero mind to his charm. Since couldn't just go so eagerly with him, she had to be at least a little demure as she was Kokonoe's assistant before anything else.

"Wow...you know me that well? I'm impressed, if I may say so, hearing all of those acknowledgements makes a guy feel welcome." she knew all of this about him already? Then he didn't have to lay down any titles, she was still pretty cold towards him, but that was alright. The sweeter the prize after all!

"...Your purpose here, General Mutsuki?" Kagina was unlike any Kaka he'd heard word of or seen first hand, most were very friendly. But he imagined that this came from the fact that she was Kokonoe's assistant, everything he expected.

"Well I'm without someone to share dinner with, I was hoping that might be something that you could help me with. And please, call me Kagura, General Mutsuki is too formal for me, especially in the company of a lovely lady like yourself." the line was delivered and he could already see that she was still impassive. Ouch...maybe she was just as distant?

"And just what are you proposing that I am the company you wish to share your dinner with, Kagura?" she used his name, still looking at him with a cool, but focused gaze. Piercing into his soul with that red eyed stare, but still he kept his wits about him.

"You guessed right there darling, I was hoping that you could also enchant me with your name, can you?" He felt that some headway was made since she called him by his first name.

"To answer both of your questions: first, my name is Kagina-kaka. Second, about dinner, well you see I was planning some things earlier, but I can rearrange them if you won't mind any company that I bring?" she said this softer, looking at him and for the first time since they began talking, she let her uptight posture break. Something that she planned to perfect, since she saw him loosening up.

"A little company? The more the merrier! Go ahead Kagina, invite who you want to alright? Dinner's at Perudot's, out on the main thoroughfare. It's 7:30 pm sharp, but I don't mind if you and your company are fashionably late." alright this was the chance to break the ice! Maybe he could wear her defenses down and get to know her better?

"Your terms are acceptable, Kagura. I will bring my company and will be at Peridot's by 7:30 sharp." she said before turning and walking away from him, grinning to herself and adding a little sway to her hips. She purposely sashayed so he stared a little harder, she had the poor sap: hook, line, and sinker. Free food was delivered and she certainly would make sure he took something away from this.

Not only was Kagura, he was staring at her move and whistled, he was one lucky guy. At least that was presently his thinking, though it was doubtful he'd feel quite that way at the end of the meal. Since Kagina was leading her brother right back to the Professor, with the purpose of asking her along. Even though she was not sure if the Professor would come along, there was no way that paying for two kakas was going to be easy. Well at least to the point that it was not going to be costly, even if one could afford to do so.

Within 15 minutes of their original departure, the twins found themselves down in the makeshift lab watching the Professor pace. She hadn't noticed them yet and the two knew not to interrupt her thought. Though after a few moments of her pacing, her ears perked up and her tails whipped up and then down, she was dealing with an annoying thought before the two showed up.

"Eh? What the hell are you two doing here? I told you to head off, or did you want to get back to work?" her annoyance could be taken out on them, that much was sure. She didn't mind it if she was given a free target to help get rid of some of it.

"Professor, I've come back to inform you that Kagura Mutsuki hit on me, as you predicted, though even faster than before." Kagina said this with a soft smile, as she was asked to tell her the moment he did.

"Wow, he's pathetic, predictable, and pitiful all at once. I expected he might heed my warning, oh well, I'll plan something special now. Thanks for telling me Kagina." at least Kokonoe could positively use that irritation she was feeling now, something suitable for a pervert.

"If I may Professor, I have a good solution to surprising him and taking out some of your frustrations." Kagina's claim was bold, but also in her mind, a very good one with focus.

"What's on your mind, Kagina? You don't make bold claims without reason."

"Well Professor, I told Kagura that I'd be bringing company, I never told him how many. My plan was to bring my brother and you, if you'd be inclined to join us."

The words took only a split second to sink into Kokonoe's mind and within seconds the most sinister looking grin crossed her face. After a second of pushing her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose she began to laugh. The well known laugh that evolved into a cackle that meant something was going down: either serious science or someone was about to get a big dish of suffering at the hand of the Sector Seven Professor.

"Oh hell yes, I'm coming along. I've been wanting to try Peridot's cuisine anyway, especially since its so pricey. I imagine that he chose that location, Kagina?"

"Yes, that was his choice, we're to be there at 7:30 PM sharp."

"Ah, two hours from now? That's fine, plenty of time for me to get ready. Well dress pretty Kagina, I'm going to make sure and maybe at least wear a new lab coat."

The three laughed, well it was more that Kokonoe laughed and her underlings shared a bit of laughter, it was after all rather amusing in its own right. Oh the things that Kagura would be purchasing tonight, his pockets would feel it for a while. Kokonoe had such devious bites of food in mind, if only to make sure that Kagura got the hint on not hitting on Kagina. She warned him earlier and it was the only one he was getting, since she had no desire to see him fraternize with her. The Black Knight might have been a stand-up warrior and co-conspirator with her, but it was no excuse to try and womanize her personally designed assistant.

-Two Hours Later-

Kagura was outside of Peridot's, dressed as his usual charming attire allowed him, on the way he'd gathered some cute girls for lunch tomorrow, this evening was the prelude to a better time he felt. Upon seeing Kagina, he smiled and waved at her, seeing only that he was in for a good night if he could just crack that exterior of hers. Genuinely he thought she seemed charming in her own strange way, a kaka carrying on with such dignity was rare, let alone one as sharp as she was and that was part of why he wanted to see if he could make some headway with her. Though he wondered who her company for the night was? He couldn't help but look around at her side and spotted a smaller, but similar looking kaka at her side. He saw no bust, no curves, and despite the general shared features all kakas had? He knew he was a male without a question, between that and the fact that Kagina and this smaller kaka shared the same coat.

"Hmm...her kid brother I suppose." he mused over it, she must have been looking after him since they worked at Sector Seven together. That almost melted his heart, how cute was that? Not only was she probably gorgeous to match her curves, but she held a beauty about her generally personality that drew him in.

The second figure behind the two surprised him slightly, though he let of something of a grin on his face as he couldn't believe it. Professor Kokonoe came as well, what kind of fortune was this? Maybe he could melt that iceberg as well, at least enough to get her to back off of him in terms of trying to get a chance with her assistant. He couldn't help but have a little plan of attack here, he was going to let them order as they wished. He could afford it and he could just count it as...feeding personnel and put it on the bill, tonight couldn't go better than this in his mind.

As the group approached, he met them in part and as acting host, he greeted them with a smirk on his face.

"Hey there, I imagined there was going to be a party, but here I found a tribe!" he said this as a bit of a joke, he was met with cool silence.

There was actually a moment where Kokonoe looked at him with flat eyes, Kagina's gaze was the same as her twin brother's: a calm and inquisitive look at this point.

"Sorry, was that a joke?" Kagina was the first to ask the polite question.

"No Kagina, the proper way to address that is, was that childish comment an attempt as a joke?" The Professor was far harsher and it made Kagura flinch a little, right in the eyes.

"Right, Professor. I suppose I was being too kind." Kagina said with a soft smile, looking down at her briefly before her gaze returned to Kagura.

Right...melting the ice, that was an understatement, he thought. Perhaps this was akin to melting Permafrost and coldest glacier instead? Either way he lead the group into Peridot's, stepping past the threshold and immediately receiving top treatment. He was well known around this side of town and even further by the Maitre'd who was tending to him. He always tipped well and thus, was the sole target of servers who wished to be under his attentions (and money). Someone almost stopped the Kakas, because it was known well enough that they couldn't possibly afford such a highly priced locations, but once it was seen that Kagura was gesturing to the tallest of the guests with, all became clear to the staff.

They were all his guests, he met each with a smile and from that moment forward, so did the staff as well. Kakas might not have been equal to rats, but they were not exactly well received due to their nature of being...stray cats. Though these two and the strange two tailed woman behind them, those present could only guess that they had some kind of prestige. General Mutsuki was treating them like his honored guests, so the overall theme of those in the restaurant quickly attuned to this fact. The establishment was a beautiful sight, easily befitting that of a five-star accommodation that it was credited with being.

The royal purple carpeted floors were spotless, the theme of the beige colored walls, Corinthian columns that supported the structure itself. To the hanging chandeliers from above also providing it both with lighting and the 'Ballroom' type of effect. It had been designed with some sort of grand scale of architectural triumph as the theme, certainly as one that met that theme pretty well. Peridot's was certainly worthy of the name that it held, with everyone inside dressed well in order to eat there, all other patrons were of the uppercrust of society. Definitely only the oldest of blue bloods and of new fortune ate here to show they could afford such rich dining.

Yet, even as the group was led to the table of Kagura's private V.I.P. room to enjoy express service and the meal itself, there was not one look of surprise of awe on the three following the great Librarium General. In fact, the pink haired woman was playing a game and walking, with a calm demeanor. The Kaka pair were well behaved, not looking around at anything, instead just following Kagura until they were seated. While the pair were also quite polite, the pink haired woman was very casual about it and dismissive. The Maitre'd was determined to make an impression on them yet, this was about the pride of the restaurant as well!

"So, to start General Mutsuki, what is it that I can get for you?" the suit adorned maitre'd asked with a charming smile upon his features.

"Let's get me started with some ripple blanc, your finest year. Get everyone else whatever they want." Kagura said this while gesturing with a grin, it was a la carte for all those present. He was going to brace himself, since he'd heard about kakas eating a lot of food, but had never seen one really get into food. However, he figured that Kagina and her presumed kid brother were different, they had a sophisticated air about them after all!

"Jasmine Green tea, please." Kageo asked for politely, something very simple but that he enjoyed to start any meal with. He always had it before having some stew while at home.

"I will have the same as well." Kagina said with a matching demeanor to her brother's, it was almost unnerving to the Maitre'd, they were clearly different and yet...so alike.

"Your strongest espresso, making it extra sweet, of this formula. The ingredients are written in layman's terms, I'm sure even you can follow it." Kokonoe's response was simple, albeit her usual curt nature and in her hand, was the slip of paper. She was not in the mood to enjoy dinner yet, but knew a good cup made specifically as she liked it would change that. Some espresso was just the thing to help stir her senses, that and it fit the theme of casuals like her subordinates perfectly.

The Maitre'd had an expression of being insulted pass across his features briefly, but only for the faintest of moments before disappearing behind a professional smile. He nodded and accepted the piece of paper with a bow of his head before responding verbally.

"Of course, madam, at once."

With that the staff stood off to the side, awaiting the slightest thing needed of them to service the party of four. There was however, silence except for the game that Professor Kokonoe was presently engrossed with. Kagura looked on a little expectantly of those present, no one looked in his direction or said a thing. That was just depressing he thought, so he engaged one that he had not spoken to yet, maybe her little brother could help him chip at her shell?

"So, Kageo, is it?"

"Yes, General Mutsuki?"

"Please, call me Kagura, we're all friends here after all."

"Oh? Alright then, Kagura. What can I do for you?"

"Tell me a little about yourself, I've heard a little bit about you, but not much."

"Just a Kaka really, I do whatever the Professor requires of me."

"I don't quite mean that, I mean do you have any hobbies?"

"Ah, yes. I like to cook stews and try ingredients, I sew, train, and test my skills now and again."

"That sounds nice! I don't get to cook much, but I am not bad in the kitchen by any means. You'll have to share some of that experience with me later!"

"Of course, I wouldn't mind at all, just show me to a kitchen and stand back, I'll show you what I know."

Finally he was getting somewhere, though it wasn't the way that he hoped it would go. He chatted with Kageo about things that he did, really just getting to know that he was actually a bit interesting: only that he was not to Kagura's interest. It was small talk and never once did Kagina look anywhere but straight ahead, her expression was calm and she paid very little attention to anything else. Instead she turned to her brother and spoke to him, a big smile upon her features as she addressed him. At this time, their jasmine tea had arrived and was set before them as was Kokonoe's ordered espresso.

"Are you enjoying yourself thus far, brother?"

"Of course! What a wonderful place, such kind staff and the mints are exquisite. After dinner or otherwise, I just had to try one."

"Oh, you too? Heh, I couldn't help myself! They were so tempting, just being there."

"I'll agree with you there, sis, they are at that."

It was small time banter, unplanned by the pair, but a natural conversation that had Kagura hoping for some of that kind voice his way. He looked at the two and addressed them both, the best way to break the ice! "So what do you plan to eat?"

"I was thinking about starting with the ribeye, I thought it might be good for a starting course." Kageo said casually, he was a fan of medium well cooked beef. It almost made him salivate, of course he did avoid doing so as to not ruin the appearance of he and his sister being sophisticated kakas.

"I was going to start with a Tuna steak, the full serving myself, how conservative of you, brother." Kagina smiled, as the full serving here was three steaks of the fish in 20 oz. sizes, a modest start for someone of her appetite.

"Err...starting course?" Kagura was a little surprised, as both of these rather petite appearing Kakas were talking about that being a start. It would easily feed a normal person, he was really surprised that Kagina was speaking casually of that being so conservative.

Just then, Kokonoe interjected while enjoying her espresso, at least these they didn't mess this up, she was certain they were 5-star for a reason and this was proving it.

"Come now, Kagura. If you knew anything about the Kaka Clan, you'd know that they have voracious appetites, even though I suppose you've lucked out with these two. I designed them for efficiency, so they eat no more than they need...that said, they will not be satisfied with normal meal sizes." she said this without looking up from her game, as if the every day knowledge of this was something that he should be aware of.

"Right, I knew they ate a lot, but something in such portions..." as soon as he said it, both kaka siblings looked upon him curiously, as if for him to elaborate.

Comically enough he was saved by the announcement of the appetizers order...wait a minute, where did those come from? Just then, Kokonoe interjected with some words that made it clear that this was no mistake.

"About time these showed up. These platters were sure pricey, but after I input the order before we got here, it seems like they had the time to get it all settled. Just in time before I really got famished." Kokonoe had purposely chosen three of the largest platters for their group, especially ensuring that expenses were not spared. Oh no, she was going to ensure that she ordered up the best, especially given that Kagura was so willing to pay for it. She was going to milk that for all it was worth.

"You ordered this _ahead_ of our arrival? Well, I suppose that's alright-" Kagura found himself promptly cut off by the curt Professor, who briefly adjusted her eye glasses.

"Good, I already charged it to your accounts, since you were going to offer to pay for this. So I wasn't worried." the casual interjection made his jaw drop for a moment, she took the liberty of spending his money without hesitation or informing him.

He knew she was dangerous, but hell...this was something else if she effortlessly hacked into his account. He didn't let it show of course, as he winked and gave a thumbs up in turn of it. Nope, he wasn't going to be impacted by this, he made sure that he didn't do anything foolish like show weakness.

"Ha, its no problem! As the offer stood from the beginning of the night, a la carte. Whatever you want, you get, its on me."

"Good, that's what I expect. The absolute best from you, Mutsuki."

The response from Kokonoe was flat and expected, she returned to scooping some of the food casually and throwing it into her mouth on occasion. Kageo and Kagina focused on eating delicately, but were still picking away at the first platter quickly. Already they'd cleared one quarter of the platter's contents away and were showing no signs of slowing. They were certainly enjoying the flavors, but were anything but savoring the taste. Kagura had to say this in part, hoping to slow them down to enjoy the flavor, especially because he was hoping to see Kagina really enjoy herself here above all else.

"That good enough to enjoy the flavors, you two? It might be a little too fast for that." his comment was again, rebutted by the Professor.

"Nope, they can sample up to 200 flavors at once in a micro-second, at the pace they are eating, they are getting through it at a very casual pace with time to spare. Remember who designed them, kiddo." she said this in a condescending manner, though it was neutral in tone.

He almost made the mistake of asking Kokonoe how old she was, but then he made sure that thought didn't do more than pass his mind. She'd have turned him into a private lab experiment, just because she had zero tolerance for him as it were. Still he was grinning and having a relatively good time, he passed his time by flirting with a few of the waitresses, he could see that he hadn't lost his touch. That much was reassuring, though it made him consider that he had to try something different than the usual tactics. As neither Kokonoe or Kagina were being remotely swayed by them, it was time to turn up the charm.

"Your tuna steaks, madam, uncut." the words coming from the Maitre'd as he set her steaks down personally, in truth he was impressed by the fact that both she and her apparent brother were so well behaved. Almost the way one was with a well behaved pet, even though they acted far classier.

"You are too kind, thank you sir." Kagina's soft, melodic voice was soothing to the ear, and spoken in that degree that put other bluebloods to shame. It was music to Kokonoe's ear, clearly her design was flawless!

"Your medium well steak, sir."

"Thank you, miss. This looks delectable, I can hardly wait to begin."

Again to her ears the sound of refine made her grin wider, oh these two were just the best when it came to it, and why was that? Because **she** was the best! Oh now how she longed to have a day like this, she waited for her meal choice, a well filling meal that was beyond her capacity but was very pricey. Things were going pretty well she felt, this was the perfect evening so far. Especially observing the many looks of horror or surprise across Kagura's features, he was suffering in a way that was harmless to him or their plans. There was nothing better to her about this, considering that she could as she was doing now, eat up the results and savor them to her content. Who's to say that one's suffering doesn't bring another some joy? It sure as well was to her so far, nothing quite beat this!

-At the end of dinner-

The meal had gone relatively well by the standards anyone might expect, everyone ate well, there were some jokes passed around, some humor as well. Though all of it came with Kagura as usually the one being corrected by Kokonoe and with him ending up as the subject of being less than a Casanova for the entire dinner. It wasn't too bad to take the jabs, he rolled with them since they were nothing serious. Even though he was bummed that by the end of the night he ended up with nothing in terms of gaining ground with Kagina. All he got was a casual set of responses if not ending up completely ignored at points, though she responded to him and was polite.

That was probably the worst part of it for him, was that she responded whenever he spoke to her, but she never went out of her way to engage with him. Clearly the interest was just not with him and he couldn't see why not. Then again, he was warned, perhaps this was it? Kokonoe was looking out for him instead? Well she had emotions as he saw her smile, heard her giggle during the dinner, she was just not doing this with him. It was all with her brother, perhaps that was where he failed tonight...if he could get in with her kid brother, then he might have a chance.

Was it a desperate act? Not truly, Kagura was just in the league of showing that he didn't give up, some girls were out of reach, but everyone responded to him! He'd even had Makoto hitting him for his comments when he spoke of Noel and something he said went over her head. He'd have preferred that she did that, the cold shoulder, unintended or not, was so much worse he thought. At least he didn't have to pay for this whole thing, it was feeding personnel. He was just glad about that fact...otherwise the night would have been a helluva lot worse.

"Lord Kagura?"

"..Eh? Hibiki?"

The sudden communication got his attention and before long, he'd had the ear piece to his ear while responding as he stood in the restaurant.

"I found a critical error in the expenditures account, I have charged your evening's affairs to your personal account. I am letting you know for your awareness only."

"What? Oh Come on, Hibiki. It was feeding person-"

"I'm afraid that our new acquaintances do not count as personnel, Lord Kagura. You should be well aware of this fact."

"Ouch...just ouch Hibiki, always cramping my style."

These were the last of the words shared between the pair before the communication, the evening ended with Kagura getting no break from either outcome. For the Professor it was about as good as it got, as by the end of it, she was cackling while she and her minions walked the street back towards the base. The laughter did get some attention, not that the scientist remotely cared, her plan had been a success and as of the moment she was highly amused.

"Ha! Good work, Kagina! Just as I expected from you. He wasn't sure what you were doing half the time."

"Thank you, Professor. Honestly, his attempts to hit on me were rather small, unsurprising for a man of his class."

"Eh? What do you mean by class, Kagina?"

"I believe the term Casanova fits him, as a class designation?"

"Ah, yeah, I see. Yeah he's one of those, though don't make it sound like it has so much dignity. Trust me, it really isn't something to be proud of."

"Yes, Professor I do agree."

Despite her twin being present during the conversation, it was clear that he did not fit the bill in terms of what they were describing. At the very least she was proud of her brother having way more tact in terms of things. The thought had not mattered, as Kokonoe herself was just pleased with the designs of both of her agents, they were suitable in many ways. Genetics aside, they'd both turned out alright despite the environment they were nurtured in not being of the highest caliber. There she went again, focusing on things that did not matter...her mind really did like to drift even when she was having some real fun for a change. The Professor did her best to stop thinking of such things upon arriving at the Library Headquarters, she was determined to get some rest before focusing on her next project.

"Well Professor, I believe I'll retire for the night, thank you for coming, it was great fun." Kagina said with a genuine smile, happy to have taken part in it herself. Such an amusing deception was simply one funny to her, despite being almost cruel.

"No thank you, Kagina. You told me and devised a pretty good idea, I appreciated it! It made my night, so you sleep up. We've got work to do tomorrow." Kokonoe said, in a rather uncharacteristic moment for her, her hands on Kageo's shoulders idly rubbing along his coat.

"I will, thank you, Professor!" the dutiful assistant almost skipped off, happy that the Professor was happy, it made her feel even better.

Though Kageo knew that he was going to be joining the Professor, as her grip on him seemed firm enough, he asked anyway. He felt it best to proceed without any assumptions, since they'd never served him at any point in his career.

"Shall I retire to bed too, Professor?"

"You're going to come with me, I need to hold you, simple as that, kiddo."

With that said, she was taking Kageo with her down the hallway, towards her private chambers for someone to cuddle. Her best rest came in his presence, she figured it was just due to having something to squeeze that was alive. It was like a living stress ball of a kind, though one that enjoyed being squeezed and pet. For her a night of relief of head, after eating well and expensive food on someone else's tab, while using that person's suffering for her personal amusements? It was a fantastic first night for her, just maybe...if the damned plans executed themselves to suit her purposes now.

Her revenge failed the first time, but she was looking to see that those contingencies did not suffer the same fate. She had planned far better than the first time, had put up multiple contingency plans in case segments of the plan fell through, took alternate paths, and remained flexible enough just in case they did not meet any calculated projections. She'd even accounted for the Six Heroes and their involvement, including the gambit that fell through for her before in the form of Hakumen. That damned vampire and her butler, Valkenhayn of the Six Heroes couldn't be trusted to stay out of it. Even her own father...no, **he** was just a cat...just Jubei of the Six Heroes.

-In Kokonoe's Room-

Just thinking about him brought her irritation, though there was no anger ever involved with it, she could not wrap her mind around his choices. No, these thoughts were stopping right now. She just hit her room and after scooting the kaka into the room, the door shut and locked with a tap of a digital display that appeared before her. Kokonoe scooped Kageo up and moved him to the bed, sitting him on it while she went to change into her evening sleep clothing. Nothing about it spectacular, she was pretty quick in the change, heading into a small closet and coming out minutes later in: A long sleeve shirt that read 'mad science rocks', a set of sleeping shorts, a kind of kaka-styled jacket for rest as well. If anyone wanted to guess that she wore something special would have been dead wrong, she preferred simple and comfortable and that was that.

As she settled down beside her minion and wrapped her arms around him gently, while looking at his hair, she nuzzled the top of his head. Some part of her just taking in the simple moment to enjoy the closeness she had for the moment. She knew the nature of humanity on some level sought out company, so it at least logically made sense. Even animals sought out companionship, so this was well within expected limits of her going experiment, so far everything went according to her expected results. Kageo's responses were still a little different than what she'd had within her expectations of him, the agent that acted like a kitten at times and other times he was almost suave.

'Noted, he is behaving as expected, though my own responses continue to show an increase in some degree of affection towards his company. Calmer nerves, automatically seeking him out when convenient. Still expected within the experimental parameters, explained by the theory of companionship. Nothing special yet, though of noted features: a bond that differs from one of mere companionship, ownership, or master/pet scenarios do not explain what is held. Query for later addition: explore the bond and its finer parts.'

Her mind, ever like a computer made note of just how good it felt to be met with a genuine puzzle that did not infuriate her. A simple, play experiment that was closer to a hobby that was proceeding since she noted Kageo's ever growing closeness towards her, despite his professional nature in terms of remaining stable. He offered her nothing in terms of pursuit of her affections, he just took whatever she gave and embraced it. While it could be called just 'desperation' or 'acceptance', it did not fully explain it fully. There was no such thing as a lacking answer, she'd have 100% of the reaction explained: that was the job of any scientist.

Thus was the endless work of a scientist in pursuit of the future and its answers. As her eyes shut, the scientist's ever busy mind quieted the surface thoughts. While she dragged Kageo against her side and snuggled him closely, she murmured inaudible things as her mind attacked the impossible conundrums of the universe as she slept. A very simple, yet typical night of hers to be spent at rest.

(End Chapter)

A long awaited chapter given a closing part finally! The next part of the Professor's Notes down the way shall proceed, how will she react to the darkness ahead as even well made plans simply don't fly the way you plan them. No matter how well one prepares, they shall not always find answers! Stay tuned until the next chapter, until then I bid you adieu.

-Quentix


End file.
